First warm day

Today for the first time this year, the temperature rose above 70F (22C), and I went out to Sauvie Island and listened with pleasure to the chortling of several hundred sandhill cranes on my way to the riverside. (There’s a two-and-a-half-minute video about the Nebraska sandhill crane migration, filled with some terrific closeup shots and their unforgettable sounds and movements here, if you’re interested.) Once I got to the beach, I saw that I wasn’t the only one eager to soak up some sunshine.