Maple leaves.
Damp, chilly, cloudy. Didn’t go cycling again. This caused a mild, yet persistent, case of annoyance. Then, as Jack and I climbed Beech Hill late in the day, I spotted fresh tire tracks on the trail. Damn. I can’t go riding, but mountain bikers can ignore the rules and careen down my favorite hiking path? Just as I was imagining going all linebacker on the next rule-breaker speeding toward me, I came upon the little boardwalk across the brook. A newly built boardwalk, no doubt courtesy of Joe, lord of the preserve, whom I informed of the dangerously split planks of the old one a few days ago. And that’s when I realized that the tire track I’d seen belonged not to a trail bike, but to a wheelbarrow or something. Something to carry construction materials.
How embarrassing.
But secret embarrassment turned to a secret chuckle, and at once my mood lightened. As did the sky, where the sun poked through as we ascended. And Jack and I spotted a couple voles or other small rodents scrambling through old trailside leaves. And we stopped to watch a hermit thrush flip its reddish tail. And we watched as a pair of deer bounded down the wooded hillside ahead of us, their white tails flashing through the trees.
Even the season’s first black flies bouncing off my eyeballs seemed relatively hilarious.
And promising: soon there will be warblers.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Eastern phoebe
2. American robin* (v)
3. Black-capped chickadee*
4. American crow* (v)
5. Eastern towhee
6. Herring gull*
7. Hermit thrush
8. American goldfinch* (v)
9. Hairy woodpecker (drumming)
10. Northern cardinal* (v)
Elsewhere
11. Tufted titmouse (v)
12. Mallard
13. House finch (v)
14. House sparrow (v)
15. European starling
16. Mourning dove
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mallard, mourning dove, northern cardinal, tufted titmouse
