Walked Over 4 Miles to Westmoreland Park

This might be my favorite walk ever. The day was bright as can be. I wore sunglasses for the first time in ages and the sun was still hurting my eyes. I have standard Portland mole eyes and usually need to close my eyes for a bit when it's this bright. The weather was cold, but just perfectly cold. No need for gloves, but I'm sure glad I brought a coat. I headed to Westmoreland Park, because the weather was so great. I was rewarded with this amazing sight. 

The walk started off like any other. Here I'm soaking up the sun while waiting for the signal at McLoughlin to change.

I really didn't take that many pictures on my way to the park. The sun made it hard to see anything (I could barely make out the walk signal at McLoughin) and really, what else did I want to look at than the gorgeous sky. When the sun dipped behind a cloud, I could literally feel the temperature drop 10 degrees.








While waiting at the signal at 23th and Bybee, the sky was filled with birds. I hurried down to the water, but they had already landed in Crystal Springs Lake. I was bummed that I didn't get to see them land, but I was also just so thrilled that I got to see them at all. I've never seen this many geese in the lake before. There were several hundred birds.





They were pretty far back on the lake, but I could see that they were almost all adolescent Canada geese. They were definitely not full grown yet. All of the ducks quickly moved to the outskirts of the lake. They wanted nothing to do with these very active birds. I had already turned off my music at this point, because the geese were really vocal and it was just beautiful to hear. They also made a lot of noise beating their wings on the water. As I was taking this picture, I heard geese overhead. 





I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The sky was filled with geese. They circled the lake a couple of times directly above my head. It was an amazing few minutes and I couldn't believe that another large group of birds had flown in. I took lots of photos, I'm not going to joke. It was a lot to go through and edit down. At one point, I told myself out loud to stop taking pictures. I'm going to indulge a bit and post several here. It's really something you don't come across very often.





























I even took some panarama shots.











At last, I pulled myself away from the birds and started for home. When I got to the edge of the park, a man probably in his 90's stopped to say hello. We talked birds and he said he started to count them all, but lost count after four. I took off my sunglasses to be more friendly and he said that I had the look of a movie star. That was pretty darn great. He told me that he walks here every day and that I should see the swans that come to mate each Oct and Nov. After a bit more small talk, he patted my arm and said that he was so glad he saw me and we parted. I really tried to get up the courage to ask to take his picture, but I just couldn't do it. It was just another perfect part of this walk.











Ice on the birdbath. 











This squirrel was directly above me eating berries. I reached up on my tiptoes to take the picture and little berries kept falling on my fingers. Really, this was just the most perfect walk. I will be thinking about it for quite some time.

Comments

[Tathy Freoli-Klinkmann]

It's a blessing the way you see our world!
Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me go for a walk too (it's also a beautiful sunny day in Frankfurt!!!).

have a nice weekend x