January 1, 2026

Where: Cross County Trail - Eakin Community Park through Sally Ormsby Park 

When: mid afternoon

Bird species: American crow, eastern bluebird, dark-eyed junco, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, white-throated sparrow, American goldfinch, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker

Things I Thought About:

• The giant white stone mansion on the corner where the trail crosses a road has a very active little flock of bluebirds in their very lovely and healthy trees. I would really love to be rich, I guess.
• I like to see a yellow bird in the winter. 
• Why is it so cold? This is not an auspicious start for trying to see a bird every day, I must say.
• The way I looked at this tree marking from every angle trying to will it to be an owl.

• I have to pee on this section of the trail 100 percent of the time I walk it, and you can just go off path and pee in the woods in the summer, but right now I can see like five backyards. I will text my sister, who lives right up the street, to see if I can swing by her house as soon as I get back to the car, but she will not answer and I will be briefly enraged that she is on her phone constantly when we are hanging out, but not when I need her to come unlock her door so I can rush in peeing. It's no big deal.
• I can hear but not see a northern flicker, for several minutes. That bird is my enemy.
• A downy woodpecker is pecking at the ice in a little ditch. It’s very cute. I wonder what he is trying to get at.

BOTD: American Goldfinch in non-breeding plumage. I don't see yellow birds in the winter that often, and it's always a little "oh!" moment when you spot one in all the gray.