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Monday Apr 14, 2008

Riding with Cyclopaths

On Thursday April 10 I decided to join a local cycling group, the Georgetown Cyclopaths, for one of their evening rides. I really love that name!

There were eight of us that met at Berry Springs Park and Preserve and headed out. One of the riders had an idea for a route, so we took the lead from him. We ended up getting in about 24 miles before finishing back at the start. This was a nice rural ride, going in a loop to the east, then north, west to Walburg, and back to Georgetown. I recorded the ride with my Garmin Forerunner 305 and uploaded it a couple of places:

Another interesting feature, at least to me, was the amount of poultry I heard while we were riding, since we have 13 chickens ourselves. I'm pretty sure I heard chickens, and I saw a sign about a guinea fowl crossing or something like that. I need to take Karen out there, since she's the person in our family who's really into poultry.

I enjoyed the ride, and will join the Cyclopaths again when I can.

Posted at 04:41PM Apr 14, 2008 by Dave Marquardt in Bicycling  | 

Friday Mar 09, 2007

Sun Austin pond visitors

Sun's Austin campus has a small pond at one end, and it's a nice break to walk over there and observe the fish, birds and other wildlife (fellow Sun employee Chris tells me he's seen some monster frogs there as well). The fish have voracious appetites and are fun to watch when you throw food into the water.

A few minutes ago I walked over to the pond and back. In addition to the fish and the usual infestation of grackles that are common to the Austin area, I heard a bird song familiar to me but not familiar to the area. It was the song of red winged blackbirds, which I used to see and hear a lot when I lived in Minnesota and upstate New York. I'm sure they're unusual here because we don't have a lot of water features like they do in Minnesota (the land of 10,000 lakes) and upstate New York. It sure was nice to hear their songs again.

I wonder if the local mockingbirds, of which we have plenty, copy the songs of the red winged blackbirds. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Posted at 04:52PM Mar 09, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life  | 

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