Gratitude and the You Yangs

Gratitude, blogs and Facebook communication… I cannot overstate how important the birding community continues to be in my life. These souls that I have met and bonded with through the pursuit of this noble passion are some of the most wonderful, sincere and genuine beings I could want along on this journey through the cosmos. I need, and count on, y’all. A couple of years ago my dear friend, Ash, “challenged” me to write three things a day for which I was grateful and post it on Facebook for ten days.

I found that this was a positive thing for me and I continued to write them after the time was over. Those posts turned into the blog, “Living Gratitude.” Which in turn became “Living and Birding Gratitude” where I blogged about the year of birding and travel around the entire continent of Australia. It is from these that the "book" about that year is being written. I have gained so much from writing these blog entries. It is amazing and humbling when I find that they have touched or connected with others. I am very grateful and moved when that happens. I will continue to write and I will continue to work on my own gratitude.

I seek my truth and write in as genuine a way as I can within certain limitations. Of course there are details that do not need to be, or cannot be included here. I also hope that what I post can sometimes be entertaining and enjoyable as well. For myself, sharing in general is an integral part of life, just as is travel and getting out amongst it. Without these I am not alive.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I popped by for short visits to the You Yangs Regional Park, or the Youies as they are sometimes called. These are the small mountains, made up of granite ridges, that rise about 320 meters above the plains between Geelong and Melbourne. They are less than 10 minutes from my door. I love them.

I saw a few cool birds there including a Speckled Warbler and a gorgeous male Red-capped Robin. That robin has special birding significance for me. It is the bird Sean Dooley is holding on the cover of his book "The Big Twitch." That book was one of the reasons I got into birding. The RC Robin is also on the cover of the new and wonderful, "The Australian Bird Guide." I can see both books from where I am sitting and I am grateful for them.
     

The little dam on Big Rock Road... absolute heaven. I would rather be birding in Australia
than anywhere else in the world. 

 

Beautiful little female Scarlet Robin 

 

Speckled Warbler 

A particularly gorgeous Spotted Pardalote that insisted on having its picture taken. 

And often Eastern Yellow Robins will insist that you make their photos as well.

 

      

Peace. Love. Birds. Gratitude.