Saturday, December 31, 2022

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Acorn Woodpecker female

Acorn Woodpecker male

On this last day of the year of 2022, I have been looking back on the year and other years, at bird trips and blog posts, and it's obvious that birding has become the central focus of my life. Every day, with very few exceptions, I am out counting birds, photographing, and submitting observation lists to eBird.org. Each week I write an article about birds for Looking Ahead, the weekly newsletter for the Dallas Retirement Village. This last week, the final article for the year, featured this pair of Acorn Woodpeckers, photographed here at DRV on December 21st. They are striking birds with an almost clown like appearance. It's been a tough year or more for them.  Their neighboring habitat was destroyed when 99% of the oak trees were removed to make room for a new housing development. I had last seen them on May 19th, 2020, so I was pleased and excited to see them again in our neighborhood. This morning as I write this post, I am thinking and looking back on our world situation, filled with so much turmoil, division and destruction, and yet life still persists. Perhaps it's possible to look ahead and take hope we can find a way to live in harmony and cooperation.     


 
      


 

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