1 January 2021

2020 was an awful year and it will take a while before 2021 is any better, but no matter what’s happening there’s a way to take your mind off the mess and calm down: Get outdoors.

Lots of people took this advice and discovered birding in 2020. A new year, a new month, a new day is a great time to see more birds.

This week I rediscovered good resolutions for the New Year in an interview I gave on The Allegheny Front in the summer of 2009(*).

Go outdoors, look around, look up.  You’ll get a view of things that are bigger than yourself. … I find it very calming to see that life goes on despite whatever is going on in my head. Nature is still rolling.

— Allegheny Front radio interview with Kate St. John, 2009

So despite the tedium of putting on winter clothes, trudging in gray weather, and dealing with foggy glasses, make the effort. Get outdoors. Look up. There’s always something out there.

Hot tip: If you’re in the Pittsburgh area go see the evening grosbeaks at North Park (photos at this link). They’ve been at this location for several days including yesterday, 31 Dec 2020. Park at the north end of the Spillway Lot.

Notes on the interview(*) A lot has changed in 12 years. In the interview I said that I work at WQED (No. I retired in 2014), that my blog is on WQED’s website (No. It’s been at birdsoutsidemywindow.org since 2015), that I hike alone (No. Now that I’m retired and due to COVID restrictions, hiking/birding is my one opportunity to see friends). And I’m older now with a lot more wrinkles under that mask. 😉

(photo by Donna Foyle, audio from The Allegheny Front, 2009)