Amen to that. We just had our first 15C day of the year, yesterday. No way I want to go back to that c-c-c-c-cold s-s-s-stuff...
Red-winged blackbirds sure have nice coloration, but they do have a distinct, if irritating, call. https://flic.kr/p/2iNnsmv
Those birds are territorial too! If you wander too close to the nest, you get dive-bombed! Coming down at you flashing those red wing patches, it looks like someone making a strafing run at you. One knocked a baseball cap right off my head.
I think so, as service trucks and fuel trucks frequently are working at the west end of the old GN yard, probably to prevent them from fouling the mains. Here's a silhouette from a few weeks ago, at the Anne Street footbridge:
CSX (ex-L&N) NO&M Subdivision, Pass Rigolets, Louisiana. Lake Ponchartrain to the right, Lake Borgne and Gulf of Mexico to the left.
Fairview, ND, the Yellowstone River lift bridge (the state's only one) and just out of view at left is the only rail tunnel in North Dakota. The whole kit and kaboodle was pulled up after 1986.
Nice place to take a stroll. Those lampposts are cool! The tracks don't look too bad. Could be a part of the old Quebec Railway Light and Power. There's track at the bottom of the falls, at river level, but that one's the Chemin de Fer Charlevoix and it's active - no way it's overgrown to that extent. Considering how close the path is to the tracks, it's not active like the Charlevoix.