Sprung!

I know it's supposed to be the middle of spring, but today is one of the first days that really felt like it. Alicia and I took Shasta for a walk along the Mill A Loop which is a 1.1 mile loop along both sides of the Deschutes River in the Old Mill District. I was in shorts and a t-shirt, and when we started out into the wind my windbreaker seemed like a good idea, but coming back with the wind I got too warm and had to carry it the rest of the way. When we crossed the Les Schwab Amphitheater we let Shasta off leash so she could reach top speed for a minute. She always has a great time zooming across the grass there.

When we got home we sat on our front porch to soak up a bit of the afternoon sun. In this warm moment it was hard to remember or even imagine the snow and ice of January and February. As we sat on the porch I also inspected our newly discovered neighbors though binoculars. Although technically these neighbors were a type of squirrel they are much larger than the grey squirrels we have around the 'hood. Since we moved into the house in October we had never seen a Rock Chuck (Yellow-bellied Marmot) around Bend. Then last week we saw them in several locations around the city the same day , including the empty lots across from our house. In fact, today seemed like some sort of wildlife safari. We saw:

• A dozen or more deer across several locations in SW Bend.


• A woodpecker knocking on our neighbor's house under their eaves.


• A Steller's Jay and an American Robin (I think) at our feeder.


• Beautiful Violet-green Swallows flitting under the eaves of our house.


• Canadian geese eh, coots, black birds, and an assortment of ducks in the Old Mill District.

Seems like the only thing we didn't see were fish. Hmm....I think we've been here long enough to get our resident fishing licenses....