I went for an easy ten mile ride saturday out in the valley. Back when I had a bike before I never went out of town-I only thought of is as transportation. Never again, birding from a bicycle is terrific. It was a gorgeous day, there was a marsh hawk on a fence post that didn't stir when we went past. A sandhill crane flew so close overhead I could see the red patch on it's head, saw many glossy Ibis. And we saw the tail end of a courtship flight and the mating of a pair of smaller hawks. And we barely went out into the marsh. Can't wait till next weekend.

I put 53 miles on the bike in the first week.