Sun this morning! Then clouds. Then sun! Then clouds. Then sun!

That pretty much sums up today’s weather. Well, other than the temperature reached the sixties, and we had a few very brief cloudbursts. Heard the usual morning singers: cardinal, song sparrow, mourning dove, house finch, phoebe, robin, goldfinch, crow.

About the time dog and I hit Beech Hill, a big raft of clouds blew over, and we actually got drizzled on while ascending. It being the first nice day in a while, as well as spring-break week for school, the parking lot was jam-packed, and humans and dogs of all ages and breeds clogged the trail. In addition, the tractor was mowing the eastern field, and a chainsaw whined from somewhere to the south. I saw no hawks at all. In fact, I caught only the briefest glimpse of a song sparrow, and a snapshot-like look at a long-necked turkey at the top of the wooded trail—but I got a good look at a raven flying over. I did hear titmouse, chickadee, goldfinch, gull. And, most interestingly, I heard some warbler-like chips and looked up to see a small, solitary bird crossing far overhead. Shortly after, the same thing happened again.

Rode my bike this afternoon. Saw herring gulls, ring-bills, rock pigeons. I noticed for the first time that you can see Beech Hill from one section of Route 1—although I’d seen that section of Route 1 from the hill itself, I couldn’t tell exactly where it was. That was cool.

This evening, we walked the breakwater, dog and I. Nearly high tide. We ran into many other people and dogs there also. I saw a large raft of eiders on the island side, a solitary double-crested cormorant on the harbor side. The sky held a dramatic array of clouds. I spotted one duck that looked like a long-tail—but no other ducks or other birds. Other than a single loon and a pair of black guillemots in breeding plumage.

Most memorable, to me, was a moment spent standing at the far end of the breakwater. The air held a faint, pungent salt-sea smell. The floating seaweed gave off a faintly popping, fizzing sort of sound. The light reflected on the relatively still water. The two guillemots dove.

They stayed underwater for an incredible period of time, the guillemots.

Today’s List

American cardinal
Song sparrow
Eastern phoebe
House finch
Chipping sparrow
American robin
American goldfinch
Mourning dove
Herring gull
Black-capped chickadee
Tufted titmouse
Wild turkey
Common raven
Ring-billed gull
Rock pigeon
Double-crested cormorant
Common eider
Common loon

Tags: American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, chipping sparrow, common eider, common loon, common raven, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, wild turkey

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Lists, Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.