Day #306 Rarest Sighting

Rare indeed:
Great Horned Owl
on the ground
in the daytime.

When one is cycling on the trails, especially with a quiet bike, you get to see many of mother nature's critters; birds, animals, reptiles and flowering plants. A fox chasing mice in a field, a toad chasing down bugs, rabbits, deer, mink, red-wings, golden-winged flickers and ever so much more.
The windier is it, the more unlikely it is that they'll hear you coming.
However, whether you're hiking, cyling, driving or flying, the rarest thing you'll see nowadays is children outside playing. You can drive or cycle for miles and miles on the nicest summer days and perhaps never see even one, unless you are at beach where cycling isn't an option. Not even over a backyard fence. At least, not without an adult present. Fear of predators, esp. human, and fear of the rays of the sun. 'When we were children' we were told to 'go out and play and be sure to be back at suppertime'. Children were in every yard, not necessarily their own, and trikin'/bikin' down every sidewalk and sideroad.
To me, this is the saddest thing that has happened in modern times.
Once in a while, if you live in tourist country as I do, you'll see cyclists pulling children behind them in little covered trailers, or someone cycling with a 'child tandem' on the back and the child pedaling, too.
I want that to be me, on my babysitting days. My grandson is only three so I will wait until he has gained expertise on the trike first.
Then we'll be off and cycling, together.
Hope you are, too.
Karen.