Wildlife viewing

I've enjoyed some early-spring wildlife viewing.

It's not uncommon at all to see a deer along the river banks, as one traverses the Greenbelt.  And any regular cyclist will attest that occasionally you find yourself slowly zig-zagging among the abundant Canada geese.  (For me it invokes the haunting final scene in the Hitchcock classic, The Birds, when Rod Taylor drives his Aston-Martin into the sunset, as millions of birds slowly clear a path for him.)

But a few wildlife viewing opportunities have been a little less common.

I've ridden the Greenbelt out to Eagle Road a couple times this spring.  And on the most recent trip, I saw several swans taking rest in the dredge ponds.  Beautiful!

And a bit farther downstream, it's nesting time for the cormorants... hundreds of 'em perched in the trees.

Even more uncommon in these parts is a giraffe viewing.  Which should convince even the most ardent global warming skeptic.  There was a time when giraffes were rarely spotted outside of Africa.  But Africa's too warm for 'em nowadays.