Things that I am thankful for

 

Thousands of nickel sized
shells at Plymouth Beach
last weekend were amazing.

I almost forgot to write my  Thanksgiving blogpost. It wasn't until this morning that it hit me that I  needed to write a blog on Thanksgiving. If you've read them before you will see that over the first few years the things that I was thankful for were memories of that year. I would religiously be grateful for my close friends. A couple of years ago I lost my closest cousin and I had my own close call in the same week. So when Thanksgiving came around I was grateful for life itself. 

   Last year I wrote quite a bit about the people I was thankful for. I had been laid up for five months and was very appreciative of Laurie for taking care of me and the friends that checked up on me. After Thanksgiving I had another two months of pain before things turned around. 

    Now that I am pretty much pain free during the day (nights are still tricky) I am the living version of the cliche' "what a difference a year makes". It is very probable I will not have another year like this until retirement age. I spent most of the year hoping my back would fully heal before I went back to work. I had some money saved so I held out hope that the disk would slide back into place. So... since I wasn't working, I made the most of my time.

    As I look back on things I am thankful for it, this year it boils down to two things: friends and nature. Despite the free time, I didn't spend nearly as much time with my friends as I would have liked. Because I was trying to conserve funds, I did not go birding for the sake of birding too often after May. Consequently, I didn't see my birding buddies very much. The same is true of the little amount of time I spent with Dave. I think we only fished together once or maybe twice all year.

    Not seeing these people does not change the way I feel about them. I am truly grateful for the friendships I've made. The people that I spend time with will never know what they mean to me.

    While I may have not seen my friends too often because I was conserving funds, I saw a lot of nature because those funds went towards day trips and adventures. Over the past year my eyes were opened to nature I never thought much about. What I am most thankful for this year is nature itself and that I love it so much.

    I sometimes find it so overwhelming that there is so much to see and learn in the natural world. I am much better at the seeing and learning in the field than I am at doing my homework. I'll spend hours looking for snakes. This week, I spent ten hours over three days trying to get a life bird at Burlingame Campground. However, sometimes I find it tough to sit and study my field guides. Still, I am grateful that there is so much to learn. I'm even grateful that there are so many species of mice and voles that I'll probably never remember what they are even if I do come across a dead one on a trail. 

  Recently I started noticing small creeks and culverts more. The reason? Because there are a lot of small fish that I need as lifers. Every time I pass a small bridge I look to see if the water is deep enough for a minnow trap. I also look to see if there is access to the water. I don't want there to be. I want the distance from the road to the water to be covered in prickers or brush. That way, if I drop my trap for 24 hours I know that no one will stumble across it. I can't tell you how much I enjoy these little scouting minutes. These places are everywhere and it is nice to know I could have Bridle Shiners right next door. I don't have to drive to an exotic location to have a mini-adventure. I really am grateful for that.

   Lastly, thank you to those of you that read this. I said when COVID first started that I would link my blog to Facebook. The hope was that if I could have a reader forget about all the crazy shit happening for a few minutes than it was worth it to me. It seems as though I have a few dedicated readers that click on my link. Thank you all. Happy holidays!

P.S. I am VERY THANKFUL that I finally saw the Western Flycatcher today!