Yellow-rumped warbler (working on an ice-encased bayberry fruit).
As I was waking up, I sort of heard it first, the ice. The trees were moving softly in a breeze, and the ice was crackling slightly. About a quarter-inch of ice when I first looked out. Temperature right around freezing, and a mist coming down. Not good.
Birch.
I like just about any kind of weather except an ice storm. Ice storms—with their subtle, slow, innocuous-seeming progression from cool and damp to heavy and slippery and ominous—make me nervous. Maybe it’s because my bedroom lies under a gigantic leaning oak tree. Or maybe simply because I don’t like falling down. But we keep on keepin’ on despite our nervousnesses, and today was no different for me.
By the middle of it, I knew I had to take dog out for a hike. And I also wanted to check the Beech Hill birch tree.
About a half-inch of ice coated the twigs and stalks and old leaves by the time we got there. Checked for the pileated woodpecker, and there he was, pounding holes in the big dead pine.
Although Jack had no trouble with it, my snowshoe path was too slippery for me to walk on, so I had to tromp through crunchy snow. Small trees drooped across the trail. The little birch looked unkempt, its branches akimbo. Heard the croak of a raven and watched the bird fly against the icy landscape. A chickadee flitted among the trailside birches, working to eke out a meal.
Spruce.
After crunching about half-way up, I noticed a small bird poking about in an ice-encrusted bayberry. A yellow-rumped warbler. Felt sort of sorry for the little guy.
Saw two flickers perched in a tree, another bouncing away. Six or eight crows were calling and flapping down the eastern slope. We spooked a mourning dove along the trail on our way back down.
Back home, tonight, the air-temperature has dipped into the 20s (F). A mist is still wafting around it seems. Supposed to rain tomorrow.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 1 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Pileated woodpecker
2. Common raven
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Northern flicker
5. Yellow-rumped warbler
6. American crow*
7. Mourning dove
Elsewhere
8. Ring-billed gull
9. Herring gull
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, common raven, herring gull, mourning dove, northern flicker, pileated woodpecker, ring-billed gull, yellow-rumped warbler
