Sunday Stroll

I also took a stroll this afternoon to see if I could find some new BIGBY birds. Like Robin, I was encouraged by reports of recent spring arrivals in the area. It was a classic late March Wisconsin day--bone-chilling cold in the wind and layer-stripping hot in the sun behind shelter.

I started the walk with Anne and Po and, seven plus miles and three hours later, I arrived home by myself (Anne and pup headed home around the four mile mark) with five new BIGBY birds: of the hundreds of gulls at McKinley Marina, I was able to pick out one second-year Glaucous Gull and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull; the raft of scaup off of North Point produced a few Lesser Scaup; a couple of Golden-crowned Kinglets were flitting about in Lake Park's Locust Ravine; and a pair of beautiful bright blue male Eastern Bluebirds were feeding on the ground in one of the ball fields at Lake Park.

Looking for a site that has a virtual pedometer that I could use to determine how many miles I walked today, I came across MapMyWalk. After signing up for a free account, I was able to map my route and easily produce the map above.  Click on "Route" on the map and on the MapMyWalk page that comes up, click "Watch Course Flyby Video" and hang on to your hats. Supposedly MapMyWalk even calculates your carbon offset for walking/biking rather than driving, though I haven't been able to find the "Green Stats" section of the site yet. They've even got an iPhone app, Robin!  Overall, very cool site--I highly recommend it for all you BIGBYists out there.