Philadelphia - Longer Riverwalk

 
We walked Rachel to work again this morning and bought groceries on the way home. Good weight-bearing exercise, haha. Then I wrote another chapter of The Lonely Donkey.

After lunch, the weather was gorgeous- just what I needed to perk me up (it's going to be hard to come home to 30 degrees)- and Marie and I took a much longer walk. In fact, David suggested we walk as far as we wanted and then he could pick us up so we didn't have to do a return walk.

Marie and I started by going back down to the Schuylkill River. We walked past where we did the other day. This far north, it's less urban and there is plenty of park space.



The nearby universities all have rowing clubs, and they were out practicing today. By the time we were finished walking, the river was covered with them.



I always seem to forget how much farther south Philadelphia is from where I live. This mockingbird was just checking out the scenery.



Philadelphia is filled with sculptures. I didn't take too many pictures today because I was intent on hiking. But I caught a few. I think I've seen pictures of this one and it's companion piece. This is "Settling of the Eastern Seaboard." You could keep a blog alive for a long, long time just covering all the sculptures.



Most of the time we were walking between the river and Fairmount Park. This is a 2000-acre park with portions on both sides of the river. It was really interesting to see former entrances, places where one could presumably park and then walk up the hill into the park, when the traffic on the road at the base of the hill was much less. I liked this one. I think you could still walk up into the park here.



Of course, I'm always trying to capture a really perfect water ripple pattern picture. I do like this one a lot.



The layers of bridges are fascinating. This was my best picture.



And finally, after David retrieved us, we cooked dinner. Marie had suggested stuffed zucchini boats. They were SO yummy! David brought home ice cream, too, so we had a great meal!



Talk about a perfect day with friends. The girls are doing their homework, and we hope to play a card game after that. We've managed one each evening. These are good times!

Oh, yeah. We walked about 9 miles today. We can feel it- not quite in shape for that yet, but we sure will be soon.

See Philadelphia Riverwalk

Alabama Wildlife -1

 
Loretta and I spent the morning doing errands, but then we headed out to try to find a wildlife adventure. We had marginal success, but are going to try again tomorrow. My best picture of the day is a white egret soaring over the Tennessee River.



I can crop that so you'll see the bird better, but I liked the shot with the clouds too.



This is a crummy picture, but there's no (safe) way to get it better. This is white pelicans and cormorants sitting on the rocks in the Tennessee River below the bridge. Had to take it through the railing at 50 mph.



Just a mockingbird, but they are pretty, and I seldom see one in Michigan, although it's not unheard of.



While we're doing common birds, here's a cardinal. But I loved how he looked sitting in the white clover.



Funniest wildlife of the day- a stuffed fox in the lodge at Joe Wheeler State Park. The jaunty look for Christmas, I guess.



Now we've arrived at the location we were trying to find: Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Sadly, the visitor center is closed on Monday and we didn't know that. But we're planning to go back tomorrow. Nevertheless, it was not a wasted drive. We found a short trail along Flint Creek (which runs into the Tennessee River).



These turtles were pretty far away, so the picture is poor. I'll try harder to get good pictures if I see them tomorrow, because this is a new species for me! These are eastern river cooters, Pseudemys concinna concinna. Since it's new to me, it's obviously my favorite wildlife sighting of the day.



I also saw a red wasp that I couldn't get a picture of.

We had a great time! Got in the car to head home just as a downpour let loose. It didn't last too long, but the timing was good for us. Wonderful, wonderful day!

	See Mockingbird
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Birds

 
I've seen both of these species of birds before, but never got pictures this good. I have nothing against our winter birdies, and will welcome the robins coming north, but it was awesome to see a couple that aren't often seen where I live.

First is the northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos. They just barely come as far north as I live, but are much more common in the south. They are common visitors to parks and urban areas, so getting a picture of one of them isn't too difficult.



I'm much more tickled to have caught this shot of the Rufous-sided (eastern) towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus. This bird is easy to hear, but not so easy to see.



We spent most of today doing church activities, but there are plans to do some outside things as the week goes forward.

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