Ugly bird

As the girls and I drove up into the forest for a run, we passed this sight. At first I thought it was a bald eagle. As I zoomed in with my camera, however, I realized the bird's head was red, not white or brown/black. A turkey vulture.
To help erase the image of a big ugly turkey vulture, here's one of Maia. She's posed at the end of a forest road with Brundage ski mountain across the valley as her backdrop. They finally closed the resort for the winter ski season just last weekend. Spring has been very slow arriving.

My goal for this morning's run was to push ever higher into the forest to see where the snow still remains. The heat wave is quickly melting what's left. Creeks and streams are running fast and high. One in particular, fed by this area of forest, runs along the north portion of my lot. It provides me with a wonderful, natural lullaby for sleeping.

I had hoped to see if we could get to our Sound of Music hillside, but there was a pickup truck parked near enough that I didn't want to risk running into a weekend hunter anywhere off the main forest road. We'll go back in the next day or two, see what flowers are starting to bloom there.

The girls didn't care where we went. They were filled with the joy of "new" terrain and smells. We haven't been on this particular road since the snows starting flying last Autumn, so it's all new to them. We had a blast - lots of sunshine, shade, and dwindling snow patches. No hunters, no bear baiters, and no nervousness in Maia. For Meadow, it was all fun and games: dashing up to every snow patch, getting a mouthful, prancing off, teasing Maia.