Day of the Blue Circle, 53rd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios): Today, I resumed my alternating-day walking routine (I missed Saturday because of rain). I drove up to the Paces Mill trailhead along the Chattahoochee River, a different route than usual to spice up my routine, but the parking lot and trailhead were closed due to construction. Apparently, extensive repairs were needed after Hurricane Helene last year, but the Park Service claims it will all be completed for reopening later this month. From my quick look as I drove past, they still have a lot of work left to do and a May 2025 reopening seems optimistic.

I went back home and walked instead on my local Beltline/Tanyard Creek route. It was a lovely day for walking - high 60s, dry, and partly sunny. I also managed to double my birding life list from the 13 species at the beginning of the month to 26 species. Many of my new birds are quite ordinary and common, like the crow, the house wren and house finch, and the bluebird and catbird. Others are a little more exotic but hardly rare, like the cedar waxwing, red-bellied woodpecker, brown-breasted nuthatch, blue-gray gnatcatcher, and pine warbler. I finally spotted a barred owl, which are ubiquitous in this area but had been playing coy and eluding me lately. I also saw a pair of Canadian geese walking on the golf course and a pair of mallards swimming in Tanyard Creek. Naively, I always thought that "mallard" was just a term for a male duck of any species, but TIL that it's actually a species unto itself, Anas platyrhynchos (which sounds like a rhinoceros' asshole).

So my modest, just-getting-started, life list after only five days is now:

• American crow
• American robin
• barred owl
• belted kingfisher
• blue jay
• blue-gray gnatcatcher
• brown-breasted nuthatch
• Canadian goose
• Carolina wren
• cedar waxwing
• downy woodpecker
• eastern bluebird
• gray catbird
• great blue heron
• house finch 
• indigo bunting
• mallard
• mourning dove
• northern cardinal
• northern house wren 
• pine warbler
• red-bellied woodpecker
• red-eyed vireo
• red-shouldered hawk
• summer tanager
• tufted titmouse 

It's not much, but it's a start.

Update: Shortly after posting this, I took out the trash and heard a bird practically screaming at me. It was quite loud and simply calling out a demanding "tweet" over and over. It was easy to spot: a fat, sparrow-like bird with a dark blue head and orange sides. It flew up on my roof tweeting at me, then down to a low branch on a nearby tree, and finally starting hopping around on the ground, all while loudly shrieking as if demanding my attention. I identified it, an eastern towhee, and added it to my life list above. It was as if it had felt left out and was demanding to be included.