August 16th, 2020, 9:30 a.m. local time
Haven’t done any real night sky viewing since the meteor shower last week. The weather has been very pleasant and I’ve been exploring my local bike paths. They are not too terribly exciting visually, but the paths make for relaxing treks through the Forest Preserves in the morning, before the August heat kicks in later in the day.
I biked four times this past week. There was a very noticeable uptick today in path traffic, a combination of the nice weather and being a Sunday. At times, it almost felt like a morning rush hour commute, with so many walkers, joggers, dogs, and cyclists to navigate around. And it’s worth noting, vehicle traffic seems unabated by the pandemic, even more so on weekends. Not sure where everyone goes. Maybe business as usual?
Missing today on the paths that I saw many of mid-week: chipmunks. I’m guessing they don’t like humans, and stay further in the forest when the paths are more heavily traveled. Their larger cousins, squirrels, are always around, and for the most part, have a far better sense of when to get off the road. Chipmunks are very fast by comparison, and just dart. I almost ran over a few. They don’t seem to know how to get out of the way.
When I lived in the city, there were squirrels everywhere, but no chipmunks. I get the impression chipmunks need dense plant growth, so when urban development hits an area, they retreat to the forest. Squirrels, however, can climb and burrow into buildings of any height, probably why they continue to thrive in cities.
Below is a typical Midwest marsh, as seen this morning.
Pictures taken with my iPhone and briefly post-processed in PaintShop Pro.
