Shallow Thoughts : : Dec

A Lovely Christmas Eve Present

I just had the greatest Christmas Eve present.

Yesterday we went exploring bike trails. We drove the length of Buckman Rd (a little over 10 miles of dirt washboard and sand, which I'm happy to say the newer Rav4 handles much better than the old one did) to explore the trail along the river. But we hit a washout about a mile and a half in, and Dave didn't want to try to find a way around it. So we went back to the car, packed up the bikes, and drove over to the La Tierra Trails, which turned out to be a wonderful mountain bike playground, about which I may write at some point.

When we got home, though, I realized I no longer had my Rav4 key.

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Christmas Bird Count

Sunday was the annual Christmas Bird Count, and we had unusually good weather for it: sunny, windless, not too cold.

It started with a bang at Overlook Park when a bunch of starlings flew over ... followed by a small falcon. I'm not good at identifying falcons because I see them so seldom, but fortunately I was with an experienced birder who sees merlins at her house and confidently IDed this one. A life bird for me (I'm sure I've seen them, but never been sure enough of the ID to count one), and also a bird that was on the list of birds to watch for since they hadn't been seen so far during the count week.

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