Three crows.

(Edit: Bought a card-reader on 16 September and so managed to upload photos from this day—among them the image above.)

My camera, God Almighty—
My trusty, rusty superzoom camera,
Which lately I dubbed “God Almighty” after
My invariable interjection when I turn it on and,
As the lens extends
To its pre-set, bird-capturing outer limit,
It emits a long, silence-smashing screech—
Has died.

So no photo today.

(Although the memory card is good, I think,
And I might one day add a photo of a crow.)

But I can tell you of
The boats in the bay
And the gray-brown, semi-overcast sky
And the quick voices of little birds flitting,
Flitting in the fading greenery,

And of the antic family of Wild Turkeys
Pecking and parrying along South Street.

And I can tell you of
The seductive tease of the restive, rich-smelling breeze,
Of a taste in the air that smacks of
Irresistible ancestral urges
And certain change.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 9 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Black-capped Chickadee** (v)
2. American Goldfinch (v)
3. Red-eyed Vireo (v)
4. American Robin (v)
5. Turkey Vulture
6. Common Yellowthroat
7. Song Sparrow
8. Eastern Towhee (v)
9. Cedar Waxwing
10. American Crow
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler (v)
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
13. Blue Jay (v)

Elsewhere

14. Wild Turkey
15. Herring Gull

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere