Note
The weather forecast for today looked very promising, so promising that I called my weather dude over at UW to double check. Yes, it was going to be a real spring day, the first of the new season.
That meant a long ride was in order, with the objective being to scout for crow nests. It's easy to find crows around here--they are about the most common bird around--but finding crow nests is altogether another thing. They are elusive. Fortunately, I knew where I could find a reliable guide, and I was confident of success.
But first it was time to bagelize, and knowing this day was coming, I was well prepared with a wide assortment of bagles, cheeses, and honeys. You really can't have too many bagels, and if the bagel factories of America had any hint of what was going on in the Laramie Valley, surely they would all be adding an extra shift.
My guide and I first wound our way through town via the UW Campus, where multitudes of cowboys and cowgirls were all studiously examining their phones. Then through the rest of town and emerging through the western edge out into the open prairie, still covered in deep blizzard snows, with only a few patches of wind swept bare ground showing.
After an hour of cycling from there, we at last came to an underpass much favored by mud swallows--though it was too early for them to have returned to their colony.
Not too early for crow, however, as they never leave. And on one of the piers a crow couple had erected a mighty nest of twigs and sticks, and the tail feathers of one half of the couple were visible, sticking out over the edge of the nest.
The sun was warm, and the breeze off the fields of snow was cold. At least we had the wind at our back as we returned to town from yet another successful crow nest hunt. Feeling the sun, it was tempting to think winter might be about done, but looking at the snow was a reminder that in all likelihood there would be more winter before summer. It's not even June yet!