Tuesday, April 21, 2015

WOODPECKERS, WOODCOCKS, & COYOTES
8.1 Mile Run at Thacher Park
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

John Boyd Thacher State Park is one of my favorite local places to run... partly because it's so beautiful and isolated, and partly because I've run there so many times and have a lot of good memories. It's been a while since I was there, so it was something of a no-brainer to head up there tonight for a run.

I started out from the Ryan Road trailhead and quickly discovered that all the water that was on the trails a little over a month ago (in the form of snow and ice) is probably still there, except now it's saturating the ground. Lots of wet, muddy sections during the first few miles, though that did improve substantially later on. Passed a small group near the old quarry and a woman walking her dog a little ways beyond the Long Path parking lot, but otherwise I had the trails to myself.

Legs were still feeling tired, so it was slow going. I suspect my reduced amount of cycling and snowshoeing this winter is the culprit, though weekends like the end of March (when I did a 10 mile race on Saturday morning and a 10k race on Saturday night) and two weeks ago down in RI and CT have also probably contributed. Of course, with the Medved Madness 15 miler coming up, I don't now that I can expect much improvement any time soon.

Eventually I made my way to the Haile's Cave picnic area, the site of many Indian Ladder and Hairy Gorilla trail races. While I was there I saw three pileated woodpeckers and heard a 4th off in the woods, which was a pleasant surprise. I had hoped to run the escarpment trail over to the northwestern end of the Indian Ladder trail, but time and the state of my legs convinced me otherwise, so instead I looped back through the woods behind the picnic area and headed back up the hill to Ryans Rd.

When I got back to the car I could hear a woodcock calling ("peent", "peent", "peent") off in the field near where I'd parked, so I bushwhacked into the field to see if I could spot him, and ended up getting pretty close - maybe 30-40 feet away. While I was watching it finally got dark enough that he started doing his courtship flights, and it was still light enough that I had a good view the whole time. Unfortunately, the batteries on my camera were dying, so the only video I got was of him on the ground. In any case, he either didn't realize I was there or didn't care, because he kept coming back to the same spot, one time passing by me only 6-10 feet away as he descended.

While I was watching the woodcock do his thing, I also heard a couple of very loud howls from a coyote off in the opposite direction... I've heard them calling and and yapping before, but never a howl like this, which sounded like something straight out of a movie. After a couple of howls he quieted down, and once again thanks to the weak batteries I had no chance of recording it.

Not long after that it started getting dark enough that I was having trouble following the woodcock (and I was getting cold) so I headed back to the car. Tonight was definitely a good night to be at Thacher!

JMH

 
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