I got up around 6:30 this morning and headed out around 7:00 to do some grocery shopping and go over to the Cosumnes River Preserve for a walk.
It was a fingertip-freezing 33° at the preserve, so I kept my walk pretty short. I’d dressed for the cold, but it still managed to get through my layers of clothes and into my bones. Rattle-rattle- rattle… The birds were apparently smarter than the humans, and were staying hunkered down in the tules and long grasses and were really difficult to spot. I did come across a pair of kestrels – a male and a female – who were working on different sides of the road, several Turkey Vultures, and a Red-Shouldered Hawk, along with the usual ducks and geese. I did some gulls fighting over a duck carcass, and some Black-Necked Stilts horning in on a Northern Shoveler “feeding vortex” but nothing else outstanding or special.
Still, it was a nice – if exceedingly chilly – walk. The sun was out, the air was fresh and cold, and you could see the mountains all along the horizon with their new blankets of snow… Just lovely.
