Ride #62
Monday, April 11th
Somewhere in Folsom, somewhere around 12 miles
Yes! Three rides in a row.
I was in a foul mood this morning. So foul I decided that it was a good day (or a good day for a bad day or whatever) to see how much difference a nice bicycle ride could make in my personal stormcloud.
So I headed out, after picking up a sandwich from the deli near where I parked the car. Friendly people, beautiful sunshine, entertaining birds. A little tiny bit of huffing and puffing. Ok. I feel better now. The storm clouds circling my head are now reduced from a cat5 to spring showers. Hurray for the great outdoors!
I spent my lunch break by the duck pond, performing ad hoc behavioural experiments on the birds with pieces of my sandwich.
Mallard ducks will compete with each other for bits of bread. And hiss back and forth if another mallard gets too close. Coots will do the same thing among themselves but are pretty quiet about the whole thing. If a piece of bread lands between a bunch of coots and a bunch of mallards, whichever species that gets the bread is ignored by the other species. No hissing or posturing.
Blackbirds are willing to swoop down to snatch the bread off the water if the crumb is near a stick or clump of grass.
One brave male duck was willing to get on dry land to see more crumbs would be forthcoming. He was out of luck since I was occupied with aiming crumbs at the female mallard in the water.
The geese stayed clear.
In other bird-news today, I startled a Great Blue Heron. I would have never seen him if the sound my my derailer clacking had not caused him to flap ponderously away.
That's it for rides until later this week when we attempt the railroad grade to Camino Heights.
CU
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