The geese have landed

These little guys showed up this week:

Baby Canada geese with the parents

The little geese have hatched!  They are so cute, but the parents get even more surly than normal with the little ones around.  While I was taking the picture, the guy on the left kept lowering his head and charging towards me, hissing and stomping his webbed feet.  I kept my distance so as not to get assaulted.  In any case, it is always fun to see baby birds.

I had a decent 15 mile run this morning.  Overcast, slightly misty, but cool, so it was a great day to run.  Saw (and heard) some new birds as well.  The common yellowthroats arrived today in droves.  They were everywhere along the swampy trails.  I also heard my first gray catbird of the year, so I am happy they are back.  Other sightings include wood ducks, white-throated sparrows, Myrtle warbler, the rather loquacious sedge wrens, and the green heron (a favorite waterbird of mine who showed up yesterday).

I feel fortunate to see any of these birds, because our early spring has created quite a canopy of leaves.  Everything is lush, green, and looks like mid June.  It's getting very hard to spot anything!  The picture below gives a pretty good example of that.  The leaves on the trail were part of a leaf/mudslide brought about by some heavy downpours this week.  I am amazed how things look right now. 

Green trails after a storm

Today was the last "long" run before the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon next week.  (Excuse me while I use Twitter-speak for a second) My buddy @marqualler of the #MNRunnerds is running as well, so we are carpooling up there together.  I am excited for the marathon, and I think it should be a fun race.  I recently realized this is my first "repeat" marathon (did this once before in 2010), so it will be neat to do it again.  The hard work has been done, so my job this week is to rest up, eat well, and enjoy the experience on Saturday.