One windy-cold drizzly late October day, I was at an insurance seminar in the city of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Now I've been to a lot of insurance seminars. But this one was memorable. First, there was the invited motivational speaker.  A guy named Blaize Winter. Blaize Winter is a very big, very loud, scary looking guy. But his message was truly heartfelt, touching, and unforgettably positive.

Next was the setting itself. A nice, newly mature commercial park set between the city and the freeway. Professional buildings and warehouses.  Big landscaped grounds. With lots of trees and a pond or two. Seeing all this, I thought - what an agreeable work place setting. Especially for a walker. Or a hiker. Before the meeting, one of our hosts mentioned that when the weather is nice, lots of people take short break-time walks. I thought - what a great idea!

Now the pattern of most seminars is this. You sit. Get a break and sit. Sit again. Then sit for a generously heavy lunch. Sit some more. And so on. But. The grounds. The neighborhood. The close vicinity of Lake Winnebago. Horicon Marsh. Eldorado Marsh. Other big marshes. Wetlands and rivers. A bird migration going on. All this and even the wild weather invited a look-see.

So, on our first break - and not waiting for nicer weather - I took a hike!  Not along the wide sidewalks.  But up along the oak lined south edge of the property.  No more than a hundred yards from our building.  Following the grounds keeper's path, up to a low plateau of sorts to the south property line.

Sure it was cold.  Sure it was windy.  But what an unexpected and rewarding treat that little hike was!

Following the path, I found a slight depression and ducked out of the worst of the weather.  Then, looking south beyond the treeline: a field of cut corn.  Roughly 60 acres and triangular.  A copse of aspen trees in the center.  The freeway beyond.

And overhead - Geese.  Canada Geese.  Thousands of them!  In haphazard flights of 20 - 50 - 100 or more.  Going in all directions.  But mostly from south to north.  Occasionally changing direction.  Sometimes groups of geese joining in mid-air.  Loud honking.  Sometimes merging.  Sometime splitting up again.  So many geese - often flying straight overhead - then occasional tell-tale sound of 'plot', 'plit', 'plit plot'.  Discarded goose 'ballast' hitting dry leaves and grass.  Geese.  Canadian Honkers.  Everywhere you look.  And there: two mallards - flying straight, level and fast - east to west.  Crossing flight paths with this flock and that.  Flights of geese.  Circling - then spilling into the ponds to the north.

Looking around: the oak tree line and the remnants of a field-stone fence.  An old rusty harrow.  Half sunken in the soil.  Not used or moved in probably decades.  And tall prairie grass.  Fresh deer beds.  A small buck-rub on some scrub oak.  Scattered about the ground: deer droppings.  Rabbit dropping.  And fox.  Deer tracks and trails.  A rabbit run thru the tall grass along the stone fence.  A fat plump field mouse.  A first year chipmunk searching the stones.  A gopher harvesting grass seeds.

Higher up in the scrub oak - chickadees.  Unconcerned, close enough to touch.  And - a tiny house wren nest.  Higher up - an oriole nest.  And higher still, out on a limb - a hornet nest.  Perfect and huge.

Walking back to the seminar with a minute or so to spare - a pilliated woodpecker.  Rambling north across the grounds - from cover to cover.

Yes, it was cold and windy alright.  That late October day at the insurance seminar.  But sometimes, you just can't wait till the weekend or nice weather to go hiking!