For a variety of reasons, I haven’t blogged for months. On a day where I have disconnected from news feeds for mental health, I’ve started an initiative to focus on topics such as birding, travel, dogs, and family that enliven my spirits. We’ll start with these Hooded and Common Mergansers I recently saw on a grey windy day at Berlin Pond, one of our local hotspots.

There were about twenty Hoodies and nearby, sixteen Mallards.

We’re in the season of no leaves, few birds and numb fingers on the camera but Ginger and I get out daily and do our normal multi-tasking of walking on leash, looking for birds, and for me, practicing Spanish. Enjoy this transition time, at least the seasonal one. As a friend wrote me today from Spain, “Hay que pensar en lo bueno” – “You have to think about the good.”