The apocalypse is upon us …
![](http://whilebusy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/20210326-20210326_091611-Edit-1.jpg)
The apocalypse is upon us …
Warming weather, vaccines in arms for the elder household members and just plain cabin fever inspired a day run — the first since the inception of the pandemic — beyond our normal WaWaWA boundaries.
From Walla Walla, we took Highway 12 to Hwy 730 near the Oregon border and along the Columbia River. (Windshield photography, of course.)
After landing at Cold Springs National Wildlife Refuge (near Umatilla, OR), we hiked for six or so miles, spotting geese, ducks and other birdlife (including a huge raft of white snow geese that eluded the camera).
Next, it was a rest stop and lunch at McNary Beach on Lake Wallula, but not without a couple of miles of added hiking.
Then we retraced our route back along Hwy 730, this time stopping at the Twin Sisters basalt rocks in the steep cliffs along the Columbia. We took a fairly short, but extremely steep trail along the Twin Sisters outcroppings, Kim equipped with hiking poles and Ivi nearby yours truly to catch any of many threatened falls. And did I mention the ferocious wind?
On my morning walk down to my workspace, I engaged in my customary documentation of the neighborhood crows, especially watchful for murders …
Then I heard a buzzing above and behind me, turning to see that a very small drone, probably not more than one foot in width or diameter, was hovering at about ten or twelve feet from the ground.
No sooner than I turned and grabbed an image (with my fixed-length 105mm lens) of the thing, it quickly sped skyward. And then it disappeared into the distance.
Seems to be a case of mutual surveillance…