Icicles.

Startin’ to get a little nippy out. Today was a clear day, though, without a lot of wind. Been working like crazy on a website offering fine art prints of some of my photos (www.maineseasons.com), which hasn’t left a lot of time for writing blog posts. However, nothing will keep me and Jack from our daily Beech Hill hike. Or very little. No kind of weather, anyway.

Shadows.

Saw a chickadee flit away just as we pulled into the parking lot. Heard others in the surrounding trees. Nothing else until about half-way up the hill, when I trained my binocs over toward Chickawaukie Lake, where I saw the little raft of coots from a distance. Then I heard a flicker. And then I saw the flicker—just a flash in some low trees down the eastern slope. The sun cast long shadows of me and dog on the hillside. Icicles hung from the roof of Beech Nut.

Returned home by way of Chickie and glanced over at the coots. Also saw some mallards down there and what looked like a pair of buffleheads, but I couldn’t be sure. Am thinking I’ll take a trip to a freshwater shore one of these days before ice-over.

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

1. Black-capped chickadee
2. American coot
3. Northern flicker

Elsewhere

4. American crow
5. Herring gull
6. Tufted titmouse
7. Mallard