Our New Year's Day Walk on the Cottonwood Trail!

I know, I know. We're a full 31 days past New Year's Day. I don't know why it took me so long to get this post done, but it did. (Actually, I do know...) Anyway, Toby and I headed out on New Year's morning to a very, very quiet Cottonwood Trail. We walked a full 5+ miles from where we parked, to where it ended up north at an AMC Movie Theatre and shopping area, and then back to our car. 

This was the most interesting walk we've taken locally, I think. To our total surprise - on this pretty chilly morning - there were birds galore! Toby got some excellent shots of them. I made my own attempts, but nothing compares to his equipment and skill.

This was an area we'd photographed last time - in the late fall. It's neat to see the same places during the different seasons. 

Sometimes you see randomly decorated outdoor Christmas trees. I like that.

There were so many birds! Easter Bluebirds, not Blue Jays which seem far more common here (which I was unable to get a pic of); as well as Robins! Harbingers of spring on New Year's Day? I'd never seen so many. There must have been a hundred or more. They were busy flying, scooting from tree to tree and really chirping up a storm.

You can see a bit of its orange breast here.

It was very hard to capture any color here this day, but that is also a Robin.

Finally, one where I caught some color! 

It was a great start to our New Year, as Toby wrote:

More than anything it felt like a great start to the year. I want to return to the times when we did this kind of thing much more often than we do these days. How exactly you fall out of the habit of doing things you enjoy so much is a good question. Weather had something to do with it, but still… Maybe I’ll get back into geocaching seriously this year. Kassi has some good new ideas for placing a few caches of our own. But I’m finding that I enjoy getting out with my camera just as much, and I like coming home with a few “trophy” photos.

2020 is off to a great start, despite it's busy-ness. We are still feeling very much like this is going to be a special year for many of us with much change and opportunity to do much good.

Thanks for reading!