Oak.

“Miserable” is a word that, to me, describes the feeling I get when I’ve had a cold for a while and my nose is runny and my nasal passages hurt and there’s nothing I can do about it but take a hike up a hill where chill, wind-whipped drizzle lashes my face and blurs my eyes and dampens my camera. Less miserable, surely, than I can imagine being. Especially when I consider that a good dog is up there hiking with me and a couple little birds are flitting about the branches of the dripping trees.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Brown creeper
2. Black-capped chickadee

Elsewhere

3. American crow
4. Herring gull