I’ve been doing less walks than during the first months of social distancing, but still manage to go for a walk 3-4 days per week, and in those days I find it uplifting to pay more attention to my surroundings, being in the lookout for new flowers or birds. Over the last 2 months I had several wondrous encounters that warmed my heart:

A red squirrel in the arboretum.

A pair of swans taking flight in the bay of Vanhakaupunginlahti.

A robin in the outskirts of the arboretum.

Punarinta in Finnish, petirojo in Spanish, pettirosso in Italian, and txantxangorri in Basque, all because of its red (puna, rojo, rosso, gorri) chest. Strangely in English it is called robin, because at some point in history (XV century) it was the custom to give human names to common species.

 A quite numerous duck family, or as some prefer to say raft of ducks, a team of ducks, or a paddling of ducks. It’s so difficult to know the right names for groups of animals…

And my favorite bird! a magpie in all its glory surrounded by dandelions.

Bonus points for the ‘surprise factor’ and wondrous encounters found during a walk: 5!

Finding an animal by surprise, is sure to put a smile on your face. Although for this to work, you may need to fine tune your capacity to let yourself be surprised. If you haven’t taken a long walk this week, what are you waiting for?