Anne and I rode in the Park together on Saturday. We didn’t get a very early start, so it was rather hot and muggy for the ride. We saw a juvenile Robin that had not yet learned any fear of people, a Green Heron that was successfully fishing and a Yellow Crowned Night Heron that we seemed to bump into everywhere we went. We got fifteen miles. At one point, Anne got ahead of me and took the picture for today’s header. I’m cruising down the bike path along Skinker.
On Sunday, Anne and I got an earlier start and were on the road by nine. The Clayton Streets Department have finished top-coating Wydown and have begun the stripping process. The bike/parking lane, already easily the widest in town, has gotten even wider. There will also be additional stripping added around intersections. In sections where there is usually a lot of on street parking, there will be additional stripping for a separate bike-only lane. Although the stripping is not finished yet, it is looking pretty good.
The pictures with this post are of a female Yellow-Shafted (also known as Eastern) Northern Flicker. Please note how she carefully displays all her identifying characteristics. We saw her near the Art Museum on Sunday’s ride. We noticed her because she kept calling out even after we had stopped and begun to approach her. This is not typical bird behavior. She must of been in the middle of some sort of territorial dispute or something. Just click on the pictures to enlarge them. Anne and I got sixteen miles.
It was still early and I didn’t need to pack or anything like that, so after we both got home, I turned around and headed back to the Park for some bonus miles. I got twelve miles. When I was about at my furthest extent from home I noticed a new bike trail, that I had not seem before. Imagine that, me finding a new trail in the Park and after all these years. Its true, the Park is big, at almost 1,400 acres, it is about five-hundred acres bigger then New York City’s Central Park.
The trail starts just west of Kingshighway, on the south side of Clayton Avenue. I followed it and it led me to a new tunnel. This tunnel leads under The New I-64 and comes out onto Oakland, across the street from the new wing of the Science Center. It is the replacement tunnel for the one that use to run under Highway Forty near the stables.
Not to mention her behavior! After sitting in the tree posing and calling, she flew over to a light post where a starling was sitting. The flicker then pounded the metal light cover with her beak, as if she were looking for insects. The starling flew off, but the flicker pounded on the light cover two or three times more. Do you think she heard insects in there, or heard the light buzzing, and thought it was insects, or is just a drummer in a punk rock band?