march 24th a day of many birds

heather and i went to the dike to run again. i quit half way through. we had a hard run the day before and my muscles hurt. and i wasn't that motivated that day either. we saw these two buddies right at the start of our first run. heather let me stop to take a click or two.














i pick this one!













it was raining at first, but then it started to clear and we could actually see some of the mountains.
















there were a lot of these red-winged black birds. they made a squeakie toy, squelching noise.















there were two, of what we believed to be hawks doing a graceful sky dance with each other. i only caught this one.











we saw this huge nest on the way out, on the edge of a golf course that borders the dike and we remarked on it and heather guessed that it might be an osprey's nest (because they make big ones) but on the way back we found out we were wrong. it was this guy's. can you see him? he was picking up twigs with his beak and moving them around to get comfy.















there. everything's perfect.













and the ducks deserve a picture too. ducks are always two by two and we think that makes them cute.









and then i ran right out of batteries. and the thing was i left the cords and dock at work, so i was without camera for randy's birthday lunch at saffron's or for his cake party later that night. it was a good cake too. and i had nothing for sunday either. not that i was in the mood to take a pic, but i might have.