During the winter months in our corner of the Northern Rockies, I have to move my morning walks to the afternoon. Come late November, there simply isn’t enough light before I need to get to work around 7:30. But by late February, mornings are light enough that I can get back out again. I have 2 border collies, who fortunately require vast amounts of exercise. I now live in a city of about 120,000, and the bird life I see tends to reflect those that thrive in such a setting: Owls, merlins, kestrels, red-wing blackbirds along a stream, even a sharp-shinned hawk occasionally. And near the same stream, mallard ducks perched on rooftops. I know. I don’t know either. I’ve come to think of them as my.