Another trip to the marsh

It has been a beautiful past two weeks here, except during the time when I am doing my long runs! The past two Saturdays, it has downpoured for four hours on Saturday morning -- exactly during the time I ran 22 (last week) and 15 (this week) miles. As soon as I got home, both days, the rain stopped! I am hoping these unpleasant running experiences will translate into a great race. It must be making me a stronger runner, right?

Thomas and I had planned on going hawk-watching this weekend; however, the weather was not ideal for hawks, so we decided to go to the marsh instead. We were able to positively ID and add 8 birds to our life list! One of the nice things about being a beginning birder is that pretty much every birdwatching trip results in a significant addition to this list!

Among the birds we added this trip was a great egret:A belted kingfisher (this picture was taken through the scope provided by the marsh):
And a peregrine falcon!
We were also able to more closely observe the behavior of some birds that had already been on our list, like the American Coot:We also had a great day with the parrots, though I didn't take any pictures. Rocky was in a great mood -- everything was making him laugh, which made us laugh.

Also, Steve has completely recovered from yesterday's vet visit. He did not talk at all Friday evening, which is unusual for him. He did whistle a bit, but was not himself. By today, he was talking like nothing had ever happened. What an incredibly resilient bird!