Surf spray, Rockland Breakwater, Rockland, Maine, 25 February 2010.
Not so many birds today. A lot of weather, though.
First, I heard the blow. Then I saw the day was gray, when first I peeked out the blinds. Wet, too—blustery, dark, wet. Rivulets ran rapidly down the open, green February grass in the neighbor’s lawn. Three crows lit in the grass and began stalking about, pulling and tossing last fall’s matted leaves and sipping water from the rivulets.
The weather didn’t deter the jogger. I counted nine crows and a herring gull waiting for whatever he scattered on the parking lot across the road.
Toward the end of the day I took a quick trip to town. The wind lifted spray from puddles and rocked my pickup on its chassis. I saw not a single bird. On the way back, I decided to see what kind of surf was kicking up at the breakwater.
Two crows, Glen Cove, Rockport, Maine, 25 February 2010.
Big surf, as it happened. I had to lean into the wind even to get down there. On the island side, great waves broke and white spray exploded high into the gray sky before quickly blowing away into nothing. I began snapping photos down the length of the breakwater—but had trouble keeping steady. In fact, I had trouble standing up at all. I’d guess the wind speed at a steady 45 or 50 miles an hour.
I did see a raft of common eiders rocking in the whitecaps on the harbor side.
By the time I returned to my truck, my backside was soaked from being turned toward the weather. On the short trip home, a small passerine flew across the road in front of me, but I couldn’t get a good ID. (Looked like a robin.)
All night it blew. The power stayed on, but my bandwidth conked out. Crazy that yet again great snows shut things down to the south of us, whereas we’re getting nothing but rain.
Today’s List
American crow
Herring gull
Common eider
Penobscot Bay surf.
Tags: American crow, common eider, herring gull
