Waiting for "Downton Abbey"

Great blue herons take over the Seattle skies.

I'm thinking that I should lay in a supply of corn meal, ham hocks, gunpowder, and guitar strings and just hide out at home for the next age or two. It really is unfair when I just want to read about bird sightings on the Tweeters list and instead learn about violent lunatic behavior. Possibly, of course, I'm just succumbing to whatever it is that Scott has been coming down with for the last several days or maybe it's just the end of a very pleasant little break from work interlude. One way or another, I'm not at my tickity-booest.

 It has been a nice little break, however. I went for a lovely long bike ride on New Years Eve day, seeing masses of brants and various other waterbirds along the waters off West Seattle; I rode to Jack Block Park, continued on to Alki, and thence to Lincoln Park along Beach Drive, before looping back to the Junction and homeward. It was a gorgeous day for it too; I kicked myself for not bringing my camera though possibly not having that distraction made it all the nicer.

The next day, after a late start thanks to a late night celebrating the New Year (TIP: The fireworks at Seattle Center really are much better from the Chief Sealth statue than they are from the pedestrian overpass of the West Seattle Bridge), we took Jetta Jared north to what I think was the West 90/Samish Flats spot northwest of Mount Vernon where we saw the lovely owl whose photo is shown here and was also featured in my post a day or two ago.

There were a couple of harriers as well which, under any other circumstances, would have been truly amazing but when there's an owl in the mix, well, they're just "not the owl." But it was another gobsmackingly gorgeous in the PNW and no one was trying to take over the public lands to make some sort of point. Our boots had a nice workout and had the opportunity to demonstrate their resistance to water.

Note: some frozen patches might not be as frozen as they look

Yesterday, Scott and I got on our bikes (after he did a little desperately-needed-maintenance on both) to visit Jack Block again. This time the ride included a stop by the very popular Top Pot Doughnuts on Alki and ended, more or less, at Constellation Park where we saw a few dozen sanderlings, four harlequin ducks, and a couple of killdeer, as well as a lovely sunset. It amazes me, it does, just how lovely a place I live. West Seattle, I tell you; it's the finest part of Seattle. The snowflakes were pretty nice earlier too.

Bikes at rest at Constellation Park