Young herring gull.
This day dawned bright and mild (seasonally speaking) and full of the voices of crows. One of my first actions of the day, in fact, was to sneak out onto the back deck to see what all the fuss was about. Crows hollering, showing up from neighboring territories, shouting at something from the big bare limbs of the oak trees up the hill. I wasn’t exactly dressed for the 30s (F), but I stuck it out as long as I could. Never did see what they were yelling at. I thought maybe a hawk or owl, maybe a fox. They were even dipping and diving. Finally, their cries simply petered out, and they sat around looking at each other. I suspect the first to raise the alarm was seeing things, and the rest just took him at his word.
Lunch.
Soon after, I heard what sounded at first like a distant blue jay—a single, downward-inflected note. Then it sounded like the love song of a titmouse. And then the titmouse let out three in quick succession, which kind of gave it away.
In early afternoon, the sun abruptly winked out, and the forecast snow showers—I’d found the forecast implausible, I must confess—began in earnest. Gray sky, spitting snow, rising southwest wind. Low tide. Seemed like a good time to walk the breakwater.
Blackbacked gull dining on a large rock. Herring gulls floating on the island side, squawking about something. A ring-billed flying by. Loons, mergansers, buffleheads, and long-tailed ducks diving—a dozen long-tails, in fact, all giving out their magically alluring call—and a pair of great cormorants perching on the edge of the breakwater’s granite stones. The snow intensifying, flakes melting in my eyes.
But this was mostly a day of consumption.
First, a common loon choking down a crab. Then a herring gull at a sushi bar, gulping down urchin roe. Then a cormorant swallowing a good-sized a finfish. And finally, a first- or second-winter herring gull worrying a starfish, shaking it like a ragdoll. I got a photo of it gulping down one of the five limbs, in fact.
Herring gull.
Chickadees called from the parking lot. And I nearly forgot: I saw a tiny cluster of black ducks flying fast through snowflakes somewhat earlier in the day.
Today’s List
American crow
Tufted titmouse
Greater black-backed gull
Herring gull
Black duck
Black-capped chickadee
Common loon
Bufflehead
Common eider
Red-breasted merganser
Long-tailed duck
Great cormorant
Winter shore.
Tags: American crow, black duck, black-capped chickadee, bufflehead, common eider, common loon, great cormorant, greater black-backed gull, herring gull, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, tufted titmouse
