Magnus goes (with luck) to Oregon, Day 5

Friday, September 4

I thought it was my birthday for a while; I was happy to find out it was not.

It was a slow day. Ed was feeling like he couldn't get down liquids, so he ate practically nothing all day. But we did Molly's walk and then at about 9 o'clock went to the raptor observation center, about 10 minutes away. We only saw one raptor (Red-tailed Hawk) but we saw a coyote down the slope in the prairie dog town. I saw a Say's Phoebe and a weird sparrow that I couldn't quite get.

 

It was still pretty early when we returned so I took Molly for a jog. It quickly became very hot and there was almost no shade. But we made it one hour--barely. Saw a kestrel or some small falcon down by the water.

This park is memorable for the concrete—concrete parking spaces and long bike trails. Lots of both. The day use area is absurdly huge.

At about 4pm I took her for the usual long walk. Norm called before we were halfway through--much earlier than expected. We went south on the bike trail to the end, where it intersected with the prairie trail which went over a small bridge and  on for who knows how far?

On way back it was still hot and miserable but I saw a Black-capped Chickadee and Merlin confirmed my ID. It is bigger than our Carolina  Chickadee species and the song is more complete-- chicka chicka chicka dee dee.

Ed was still not eating at suppertime. He forced down a bit of cereal and quit trying.