Several years ago, more than 20, I think, the city of Fort Wayne, the Department of Natural Resources and Indiana Michigan Power put a peregrine falcon nesting box atop the building now known as the Indiana Michigan Power Center, Fort Wayne’s tallest building. Ever since, a pair of falcons has returned and raised chicks there.
The bird at the top of this blog is a peregrine falcon that I saw last year along the Rivergreenway near the Maumee River.
Today, as we were walking home from downtown, we saw falcon go up into a tree along the street around the corner from our house. I got out my not-so-smart smartphone and started taking pictures.
After watching the falcon for several minutes, we saw a second falcon in a tree directly across the street from us.
I’ve twice seen an American bald eagle overhead near the river. And I’ve seen hawks in the neighborhood. Usually the hawks don’t let you get too close and do a good job of camouflaging themselves. Also, I’ve heard barred owls at night.
Saturday on the my run, I saw a beaver down in the river where the St. Joseph and St Marys rivers come together to form the Maumee.
Speaking of running (which is the reason I started this blog), I ran 4 miles today. I thought about Monday’s run and came to a couple of conclusions: 1. I did give myself enough time to warm up after jumping out of the car. I was in a hurry to complete the run, so I started running without a proper warmup. 2. I started too fast. I have started too many runs in recent weeks too fast, usually I am able to find a good cruising speed and run fine. Monday, I never found that cruising speed. 3. I ate too soon before the run.
Today, I was in no hurry to complete the run. I would run until I was done. Yes, my first mile was the fastest, but I was able to find a good cruising pace and never really felt out of it. I ate just a banana before I went out and had some raisin bran and shredded wheat when I got back along with an orange. Not once today did I crave coffee while running.
I didn’t see any wildlife while I was out running, but I did see what I think were mute swans flying west. I think they were mute swans because there was no honking like a goose would do or the noise sandhill cranes make when they’re in flight. Besides, it might be too early in the year for sandhill cranes to be this far north.
Tuesday afternoon, my son and I went down to Huntington — former Vice President Dan Quayle‘s hometown — to do some geocaching. We found eight caches and did not find four others we were looking for. In addition there was a cache that wasn’t there and a barber came out of a barbershop and said the tree the cache was in had been cut down.
Running dangerously 