The annual ribbon on the McDonnell Planetarium is one of the indicators that the holidays are upon us (another would be the Christmas music playing almost everywhere). It’s a rather impressive site and I don’t get tired of it (unlike the canned music).

There was a fair bit of action at the planetarium when we arrived (my son Austen accompanied me today), so I took a fair number of photos there before we wandered off toward the east. We climbed the berm where the park meets Kingshighway and US 40 (just to see what we could see) and walked north past the skating rink before crossing bridges over Forest Park Parkway and the Metro tracks to get to the lost corner. Under the pine trees north of the path, where I’ve previously found signs of human habitation, a man lay sleeping. He was lying on the carpet of pine needles and wrapped in several blankets so that only his hand and head protruded. I watched for a moment as his slow, steady breathing caused the blanket to lift and fall, and then we moved on past him to see else there was to find. Two kestrels sat in a tree by the Steinberg wild area. Hawks soared over the Victorian footbridge. Kingfishers zoomed by crying their distinctive cry, and the little birds tried to avoid being noticed.

Further west, by the upper Muny parking lot, a cabal of crows conversed. Loudly. And there was evidence of excessive something. Speed? Here, you tell me.