January 2, 2020 And to My List’ning Ears

Ever since I discovered the ability to listen to podcasts on my phone, I’ve been joined at the hip with them on my walks. Wither I goest, my podcasts goeth along. But along the way, I’ve forgotten how to listen to the world around me – I walk outside, but I’m not paying attention. This morning, I disconnected from my good friend Podcast, and tuned in to radio of the natural world. It was a relatively warm day in Minnesota (a balmy 35 degrees) and I was surrounded by so much birdsong, it seemed like spring. Naturally, all these birds were hidden. Every time one of them would appear on a branch, by the time my camera swung up to position, the bird had disappeared. I heard the hum of cars and trucks on the freeway in the distance and the musical sound of some jingling bells – maybe wind chimes? I spent most of my time looking at tree tops, admiring their stark and bare beauty against the sky. The photos were all sort of blah, so I did some “enhancing” on Aviary. If you look closely, you can see that a careless chickadee allowed me to capture him in one of these photos.