Over the past two weeks, I've run three times. I just haven't taken the time to post about them until now. The first run was a beautiful, 55 degree day. I ran along the river, hoping for some good gull action. There were gulls, and because it was my first river run of the year, all of them were SWSA birds. There was also a flock of scoter. As I ran down the path, contemplating the meaning of life and how to get my APHG work in on time, I started noticing that the benches along the path were moving. Then it hit me. Most literally, I ran straight into a large swarm of winged termites. I immediately turned around and ran back the way I came. However, it was just a few degrees warmer than it was when I started and it seemed like every single termite colony in the general area decided to take today to send out their winged devisions. When I finally got back to the car, I picked over 200 of them off me.
The second run was very non-consequential in comparison. I ran around a local lake, and was rewarded with some widgeon and ring necked ducks, both SWSA birds. The only thing that made this run of any note was that managed to slam my leg into the car door when I was exiting, creating a 3 inch long cut. That was admittedly not my finest moment.
For my most recent run, I decided to run along the train tracks. Train track birding is better than road birding in my opinion. The first thirty minutes were very successful. There were wrens, woodpeckers, chickadees, juncos, red-wings, gnatcatchers, and the like. At one point I started hearing a train. It took me a full 5 whistles of the train to realize that, oh, right, I was on a train track. I got off the track a good two minutes before the train came and ended up running through some farmer's field for a few minutes while it passed. Overall, the winter is done and the birds are coming back. There are birds to be seen now, even in PA.
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