Boogie on the Bridge

We drove to Kamloops this weekend so Leo could run the Boogie on the Bridge half marathon.  We stayed overnight at our friend's Sharon and Larry's new house way up in the Kamloops hills.  They are former Williams Lakers that used to run with Leo.  It was good to connect with them again.

Although its called Boogie the Bridge, due to construction there was no bridge involved, and the race course went north along the North Thompson Riverand back again.  Turnout for the race was good, with distances from 1 km for the kiddies to 21 km. There were three Williams Lakers doing the half marathon.

Three Amigos at the start line

Actually, quite a few Williams Lake runners, but just three that we knew from the Sunday runners.

Leo cruised in at under 2 hours.

While it looks like this elementary schooler is waxing Leo, she's probably running a 5 or 10 km race.

Later Leo went back and ran in with Matt.  I missed getting a photo of Wilfred coming in.

Good job, guys!

At the finish line

Leo came in 29th of  66  men, at 1:50:26, not bad for an old guy.

They don't give out age group awards so we didn't have to wait around and went for a celebratory brunch at Cora's.  

A Walk in the Dairy Fields

Spring comes to the Dairy fields.  Leo carries a bag to pick up litter.

Crossing the mighty Missioner Creek

Birds today: Ruby-crowned kinglet, black-capped chickadee, still lots of siskins around taking advantage of last year's massive cone crop, a few white-crowned sparrows, lots of yellow-rumped warblers. A meadowlark was singing.  The school put up bluebird boxes, but we haven't seen any bluebirds yet.

At our backyard feeder:  Lincoln sparrow, white, crowned sparrow, American goldfinch, red-winged blackbirds, pigeons, a ruby-crowned kinglet.  Leo saw a hummingbird a few days ago so I put up the feeder early and today we had a male and female calliope hummingbird.

What's New at Scout Island

We've been going for a walk every day, enjoying the spring weather.  On Thursday we checked out the birds at Scout Island.

The red-wing blackbirds have been in the marsh since March.

These widgeons were tucked away near the bridge over to Otter Point.

The turtles seem to have survived the winter well, we counted 30 basking in turtle bay.

In the same bay, these two red necked grebes started hollering and swam rapidly toward another equally vocal pair of grebes as if to disused them from taking up residence in their territory.

There were a couple of loons in the lake.

The osprey are back on their nest and the yellow-headed blackbirds also showed up this week.  And we heard a sora calling.

Happy Easter

I brought some of my blooming forsythia inside to celebrate spring.

Recent Outings Around Town

Leo checking off his bird list at Scout Island.  The swallows and loons have returned.

Our regular walk/run on Wednesday at Mission Road.  The weather was miserable so only 2 runners and 1 walker (me) showed up.  Soon after I took this picture it stared snowing.  Bluebirds and meadowlarks were seen.

Leo and I walked along the edge of Fox Mountain again.

Despite our cold February the ice is off the whole lake early this year.

Fox Mountain

We went for a walk on Fox Mountain this afternoon.  Lovely sunny day but a cold wind.  The snow was all gone and the trail was mostly dry.

The outlet of Williams Lake is open

But the rest of the lake is still frozen over.

Birds today:  First robin of the year, pine siskins, red-breasted nuthatch, mountain chickadee, unidentified hawk.