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It’s too early to tell but I think I may look back on today as one of the best days of this ride. It was the shortest mileage wise (just over 35) and most of it was on rail trails. Even though I was climbing all day, it was slow and steady. But most exciting: wildlife!
Back 35 years ago, when I worked for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, I regularly wrote marketing copy about how, among all their other benefits, rail trails were excellent wildlife corridors. I don’t think I really believed it back then but having spent chunks of two days on them, it’s no joke.
I spent the beginning of the day finishing up the Malcomb Orchard Trail (not Macon, an oops in yesterdays post). That’s me at the trail head in the first picture. I’ve seen about a thousand black squirrels and finally got a decent picture of one. Squirrels are mostly a nuisance at home, but the novelty of black ones makes their frequent appearances along the trails pretty charming.
The middle of the day was all Clinton River Trail. While it didn’t spend much time following a river and the surface was an often rough dirt or crushed rock, it regularly opened up into wide boggy wetlands full of cool birds. One little pond had trees dotted with nests, one of which had a Great Blue Heron in it.
I’ve seen a couple dozen red winged black birds which are delightful with their stuttering call and that flash of color as they zip by. (Sorry, they’re too skittish for me to have grabbed a good pic, but boy did I try!)
The day ended on the Michigan Air Line Trail, that was awesome both because of its smooth bike-friendly surface, but also some reedy marshy areas with big white birds I think might be egrets (???). I watched a pair for a while trying to get a good picture but they didn’t cooperate. Here’s a far away one of one of them flying away.
Today ends the first part of the trip I’ve been thinking of as “The Warm Up”: two relatively easy days. Tomorrow begins “The Trial”: three days with distances of 61, 40, and 51 miles. Oy. I’m a little sore just thinking about it.
I picked “Endangered Birds of North America” to feature today because birds were definitely on my mind all day. As April mentions in this book, the kinds of rural / suburban border areas that I was traveling through can be tricky for birds, and all wildlife really: natural oases surrounded by suburban hazards like cats, cars, and careless humans.
I read this book before I left on the trip and, even though it’s for middle schoolers, I learned a lot! One thing I appreciated about April was that she never talked down to her younger readers. This book doesn’t overwhelm you with science-talk but it delivers plenty of hard facts in April’s characteristically approachable way. https://www.amazon.com/Endangered-Birds-Scientific-American-Sourcebooks/dp/080504549X
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