In Which Geese Break the Ice

Early in the ride today, sunshine in Hiawatha on Cedar River Trail.

Another warm winter ride today. I was going to campus to work on a winter term syllabus, and before heading over to work, I took some time to swing down to Cedar Lake, riding the Cedar River Trail.

The lake is partly frozen and geese and ducks where packed together in the open water at the lake’s north end. But other patches have opened, and the geese seemed to struggle to judge where to land or walk.

They would totter across the ice until it got so thin that it broke under a large bird’s weight. Since they are well-insulated water fowl who swim in ice water all the time, it wasn’t like a March sister breaking through the pond while skating.

Views of Cedar Lake on a relatively warm, sunny winter morning.

Still, they looked a little ridiculous.

I shot some images of the birds on the water, and then climbed the back way up the MMU hill by the library. I rode about 15 miles by the time I got home, and then took three granddaughters on three separate Tag-A-Long rides in the neighborhood late in the afternoon.

On two of the those rides, we checked out the pond on C Avenue at Collins Aerospace. The goldfish were inspected, especially swimming under thin ice by the bridge.

With the extra few miles, I get I probably rode a bit more than 18 on this day of ice and water rides.

C Avenue pond--late afternoonn sky reflection (above) fish below ice (below).