Rockville Ridge.
I noticed two things today. Well, I noticed way more than two, but two stood out in my mind. The usual things I notice—the temperature (low, but moving higher), the atmosphere (sunny early, cloudy late), wild birds (fewer today than yesterday), miscellaneous photo ops—let me live a contented, interesting, miraculous life, but these two things strike me now, at the end of this day, as things I’d like to mention.
Birch.
The first was a red squirrel I noticed this morning dashing about on the ground beneath the trees across the brook outside my window. I’ve grown used to the gray squirrels out there—they chase, they scold, they bury things—but there’ve been only a couple red squirrels, so this one caught my eye. And I spent a moment following its movements.
The sun was out, and very soon I saw that while it poked about leisurely in the leaf litter in the shade of the tree trunks out there, it would dash quickly through bright expanses of sun between the shadows. It might spend thirty seconds or a minute in the shade of a big pine trunk, then hurry frantically six or eight yards over to another bit of shade, where it would poke about some more. I decided this little species has learned that staying out of the sunlight lessens the risk that it’ll be plucked up by a hawk or owl.
Beech leaf.
The second thing I noticed took place along Beech Hill Road as Jack and I were en route to our daily hike. Lately we’ve been headed up in late afternoon, and today I saw a few children playing at a house along the road, and another solo youngster kicking around in a ditch out front of his place a little farther on. I recognized these kids from a day or two ago when we followed a school bus up the road, and I saw them pile out of the bus in front of us. I knew the bus must’ve just let them out a minute or two before. The curious thing to me—the noteworthy thing—is that these kids didn’t just run right inside their houses to play games or watch TV but stayed out in the cold January air, goofing around outside, picking up rocks and sticks, poking about like the red squirrel I’d see this morning.
For me this was proof that we humans have it in our genes to be drawn to our natural surroundings—something we unlearn as we get older. We might do better to pay more close attention to the amazing world outside.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped Chickadee
2. American Robin
3. Unidentified woodpecker (probably Hairy Woodpecker) (drilling)
Elsewhere
4. White-breasted nuthatch
5. American Goldfinch
6. American Crow
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, hairy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch
