|
Previous Report | Current Report | Next Report
|
|||||
 |
|||||
|
Clouds clog the sky again this morning, despite last night's hopeful break. The sun tries to emerge a couple times, but the clouds are too determined -- only a thin light comes through, and only briefly. In the swimming hole below my north window, a male ring-necked duck dives for food.
The ringneck must've found a cache of tasty stems or snails, or something, because it hovers over one particular spot for a good half-hour, I bet, plopping under every minute or so, unfazed by an air temperature of barely 40 degrees (F). I admire its clean-looking feathers and pied facial markings. On the other side of the big east island, a black duck sails alone.
No sign of killdeers today. I hear song sparrows and mourning doves, and a couple of herring gulls stop off on the roofridge this afternoon. A cluster of them bathe in the pond. Tonight seems wet, damp, and cold. Redemption comes in the form of an evening robin. |
|||||
 |
|||||
| Bird Report is a discursive daily record of what's outside my high north window in Rockland, Maine, USA (44°07'N latitude, 69°07'W longitude). --Brian Willson | |||||
In late morning, I look up to see a tight bunch of blackbirds in their favorite leafless tree above and behind the shed. Starlings and redwings and grackles, looks like, with perhaps a cowbird thrown in. A big bird appears overhead, flying in a northeasterly direction: a turkey vulture, flying low and solo, flapping its great wings every few seconds -- an unusual thing for a buzzard to do. Guess it's on an urgent mission.
©1998 by 3IP |