First Egret of the Year

Anne and I went dancing today, dancing on our pedals that is, in a most immodest way, but the day didn’t begin with us both prancing with such vigor. Rather, the day started out on the slow side of life. It began with us starring as extras on the waking dead, a role which we parlayed into parts on the walking dead and then we got our own spinoff, the biking dead. We were both sore and tired from previous weekend cycling efforts. We persisted though, took it easy and by the end of the afternoon felt pretty good about ourselves, rejuvenated.

We mainly kept to Forest Park. It was crowded, but not as oppressively so as it was yesterday. Apparently, Saint Louisans can only stand a couple of days of great weather, before they get bored with the whole fresh air and exercise thing. We combined biking with birding, complementary pastimes. Biking gets you from one good birding spot to another quickly and easily and birding gives you plenty of time to rest in between rides. In addition to the Great White Egret pictured here, we also saw a brown thrasher, a yellow shafted flicker and some song sparrows and numerous other birds of low repute, like Canada geese, robins, mallards and grackles. We left the park for lunch at Duff’s in the Central West End, patio dining again. Bikers love patio dining, because all that fresh air helps to dilute the smell of sweaty cyclists.