February 6, 2018

I walked up the creek and ended up with a bag stuffed full of bottles.  I hadn't intended to do a big collection, based on previous walks and that I had cleaned out the tributary the day before, I didn't expect to find much.  In fact the first bottle I saw was on the other side of the creek and I left it to pick up on the way home.  I was planning to walk up to the beltway, or perhaps to Forest Glen Road, then turn around and cross the creek on the bridge near the soccer field. 

Then my walk took an unpleasant turn.  Walking up the paved trail toward the beltway, I saw a small plastic bag a few feet to the side.  Could it be?  Indeed, it was a plastic bag with dog droppings - the third I had found in as many days.  I picked it up and went on, planning to drop it off at the first waste bin I found.  A little farther up I saw another plastic bag snagged a few feet off the ground in brush.  Another bag of dog droppings.  This one had been hanging there for a while, the bag was breaking up and the droppings were desiccated.  What is going through the head of a person who goes to the trouble of picking up their dog's feces in a plastic bag, tying a know in it, and then chucking it wherever they feel like it? 

Turns out, there aren't any waste containers until you reach the school past Forest Glen Road.  As I walked there, I saw six does on the other side of the creek near the stormwater ponds.  They watched me, but didn't spook.  After I dropped off the droppings, I walked back toward the creek and saw, in an eddy where a tributary joins, a bunch of bottles and foam.  They weren't easy to get due to the steep muddy bank, but I was able to retrieve them with a little work.  I then headed back along Sligo Creek Parkway, and found enough bottles to overflow my bag.  At one point I stopped, dumped my load out on the ground, and flattened all the bottles I could so I could fit most of them in the plastic bag. 

On the downstream side of the beltway, I saw a group of four bucks, still with antlers.  They were a bit more wary than the does.  Interesting that they're segregated into groups like that. 

By the time I got back to Dallas Avenue, near where the first bottle I'd seen was waiting, I was carrying so much that I decided to leave it for another day.


Sunrise 7:08 am, sunset 5:36 pm