Sundog.
Weatherwise, today was much like yesterday: chilly, sunny, spring-like. A crow awakened me, but there was a titmouse and a cardinal out there singing, too. I heard chickadees, watched a gray squirrel root around for old acorns, saw eight crows meet the benevolent jogger.
Purple sandpiper.
Busy, busy day. Didn’t get out of the office until 5 p.m.—just in time for a quick trip out the breakwater and back. The breeze came out of the south for a change, roughening the harbor side. On the island side a small flock of common goldeneyes settled down, a male and about a half-dozen females. Then a smaller group of red-breasted mergansers flew over, east to west. Ducks still nervous-seeming, antsy, ready to move.
I heard the wail of a loon and saw another with nearly breeding plumage. The pair that rounds the end of the breakwater were doing so again as I reached it. Herring gulls. Common eiders.
I neither saw nor heard long-tailed ducks, however—I think they’d already headed out by then.
Rockland Breakwater.
But I was pleasantly surprised to come upon a pair of purple sandpipers scouting around weedy boulders at mid-tide. Hadn’t seen any in a month, I bet, at least. These little guys range farther north than any other shorebird, nesting in the tundra of northern Canada. I expect this pair is headed that way soon.
Heading out, I noticed a minor sundog appearing below our planet’s actual star as it dipped behind a cloud. By the time I got about half-way back, the sun had set, and the high clouds showed lovely dark rippling patterns. No woodcocks yet within earshot of me—but low in the night sky hung the twinkling dog star.
Closing note: the Biodiversity Research Institute‘s “Eagle Cam Two” has confirmed the laying of an egg yesterday. More of these miracles will certainly follow. And the shape, the arc, of our slide through the equinox and over the solstice has begun.
Today’s List
American crow
Tufted titmouse
Northern cardinal
Black-capped chickadee
Herring gull
Common goldeneye
Red-breasted merganser
Common loon
Common eider
Puple sandpiper
Evening sky.
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, common eider, common goldeneye, common loon, herring gull, northern cardinal, purple sandpiper, red-breasted merganser, tufted titmouse
