Afternoon Walk

I haven't been getting out on walks much lately. I have been outside a bit, but recently that has been more for spending time gardening or harvesting wild edibles.

But it is sunny this afternoon so I decided to (slightly) extend my walk to the post office. The post office itself is actually the site of some interactions I've been following.

There has been a pair of pigeons that have been trying to nest in the rafters just in front of the entrance since much earlier in the spring. Somebody at the post office appears to not appreciate it as every once in a while I would find the nest scattered on the ground below - a couple of times with broken egg. I don't really blame them as the pigeons create a bit of a mess on the sidewalk right where people walk through. I did wonder though, why they didn't put up a deterent to keep the pigeons from nesting there at all instead of periodically dashing the pigeons' hopes. At some point in the last couple of weeks they finally did that, putting up those little spikey strips on top of the rafter beams. It seems to have worked - sort of. Actually it seems to have created more diverse habitat. There are now house sparrows nesting where the pigeon had been, building there nest around the spikey projections. The pigeons have moved just to the outside of the crosspiece on the same beam and have begun a nest there. But they are no longer over the cement and the house sparrows don't seem to leave as much of a mess. I'll be interested to see if the post office leaves it at that.

After checking the mail I went down along the river and under the bridge. I have gone there pretty often, though this was the first time in a few weeks. The river was pretty high - I guess because it has been raining the last couple of days and perhaps the snow is melting more now. There were quite a few interesting tracks in the sand, though most of them were not photo-worthy. Lots of different birds, rat, frog, raccoon and the largest possum tracks I have ever seen. The first possum tracks I've seen there in quite a while.