With my allergies really doing a number on my body today, and the Claritin making me a bit spacey, I decided not to run. Instead, I brought my camera out to the Emory Valley greenway to snap some shots. There were some really nice wildflowers out there last year. However, that might have been in the fall. There aren't a ton there right now.

Map of my journey.

Anyway, there weren't many spectacular flowers, but I did get to see a heron. Two in fact! After I saw the first one fly off across the lake, I thought it might be cool to try to catch it in flight back. I ended up hanging out a ways off the trail for maybe 10 minutes just waiting for the bugger to do some.

Herons walk slowly. Very slowly. It almost looked like he (she??) was stalking fish in the water or something. Eventually, though, it did take off:

From Emory Valley - 2010-04-09

To my surprise, it was quickly joined by another! They make a weird noise that is actually kind of low and guttural, which surprised me. Here's what they looked like:

From Emory Valley - 2010-04-09

The pictures of them in flight are a bit blurry. They were taken at full zoom on my 55-200mm lens, which was a relatively cheap purchase. Cheap lens = slow lens, plus I was kind of excited and probably not able to hold the camera as steady as I should have. Still, it was very cool.

That was pretty much the highlight of the journey. In all, it was a nice walk, and I was extremely glad my allergies didn't act up while I was out. Maybe the Claritin will be successful.

Check out the album for more pictures of: old cars, flowers, weird tree growths, herons, and a bunny!