Activity for a Friday

Had a nice bike ride this afternoon over at Chatfield. Nice weather - about 63 degrees. Tried to get to another geocache while I was there but the area was flooded. Chatfield reservoir is as full as I have ever seen it. In fact, it appears to be above its apparent maximum level. Another foot higher and it would encroach on some of the roads. There are already some paved trails that are under water.

This particular cache is of the multi variety. This means that you have several steps to get to the actual cache. This one is called "Pies are Not Square". The first location reveals a serial number on an object out in the woods and then you have to do some complicated math to determine where the real cache is. No one has been to this particular cache since last fall and I was hoping to be the first one there this year. No luck though with the water level so high.

I have seen some interesting birds in the park lately. Pelicans have returned. They are so odd looking. I especially like seeing them fly when the otherwise all white birds reveal their black feathers.

I have also seen some smaller all white birds that resemble pigeons but are a bit smaller. Definitely not gulls. I wasn't close enough to see any other identifying characteristics.

Today I saw what I thought were 5 dowitchers. Dowitchers are peculiar looking birds with long slender bills and I saw one once before over there. But then I realized that these birds were different because their bills were not straight like the dowitchers. They were curved. I believe that these were long billed curlews which are relatively rare in Chatfield.