Trail walking

Trail walking with my camera is my hobby…one that can take up many hours each day if I let it, and it is a hobby that has many advantages.

• It motivates me to take a walk in a park five or six days each week.
• It’s a great way to get exercise.
• I’ve met many wonderful people by striking up a conversation and asking if I can take their picture.
• I also get to pet other people’s dogs because that’s a great way to get the conversational ball rolling (and I love dogs).
• It’s a wonderful way to enjoy God’s beautiful creation.
• I’m learning how to take better pictures (although I still have a lot to learn).
• It keeps me active and learning new things, mostly about nature and photography.

However, there are a few  disadvantages as well. The major disadvantage is the amount of time it takes every day. In addition to the daily walk (a definite advantage), there is the time it takes to…

• download the pictures to my computer.
• process the pictures, i.e. cropping them, and all the rest.
• upload the keepers to this blog and to Flickr, Facebook, Blipfoto, and SmugMug. On any given day I will probably post pictures on a least two of those sites.
• add captions to the pictures.
• write the descriptions needed on some of those websites.
• write this blog!

So there you have it! Numerically speaking, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (but not by much), and it is a huge time-consumer. So will I give it up and go back to reading mystery books in my free time? Nope, nada, never, absolutely NOT! As long as I can get out of bed in the morning and go for that daily walk, I will keep on walking. It gives me so much JOY!

On today’s walk I captured two bird pictures that I cannot identify with any confidence. I think the first one is a juvenile American robin.

The second one may be a song sparrow, but it is missing the dark spot in the middle of its breast. Maybe it is a juvenile too.

What do you think, fellow bloggers? If you have a definitive ID for either of these two beauties, please leave a comment. I had a great walk in the park this morning and made it home (before the crackles and booms began) with several keepers besides these two. I posted all of them here in my SmugMug gallery. I hope you have time to take a look.

That’s it for today. I’ve run out of time (She says with a smile on her face).