Sunset.
Even colder this morning, but sunny still. The wooded back steps popped and cracked as Jack and I walked down for the first time. Heard crows, heard chickadees. The remnant snow was hard and white, and there swirled a little nip of wind.
Field.
Sat chained to my desk for most of the day. Jack lay frolicking in sleep. Finally, as the daylight waned, we took off for Beech Hill.
We were joined today by my friend Liz. Our hope was perhaps to catch sight of the barred owl that’s been hanging around the southwestern fields. As it happened, it was the first bird we saw—flapping silently across Beech Hill Road from the parking lot area toward the back of the Karod place, where it perched on the low limb of a hardwood, facing away, looking with its rounded head and shoulders like a small bundled Cossack or hooded monk.
A chickadee called from somewhere.
The trail remained slippery going up. We all took care where we put our feet—especially given the fading light. The sun hung just a thumb’s breadth above the Rockville Ridge, shedding red-orange light all over the place. The fields glowed red. Beech Nut glowed red. I spotted a woodpecker in undulating flight up to the north—a hairy woodpecker, was my guess. Soon after, I heard the voice of a hairy and then saw it fly in a different direction.
Beech Nut.
We rounded the curve to the summit and beheld a dramatic evening sky, with watercolor clouds all around. Out on the bay islands, little intermittent blazing points of light hinted at distant shiny surfaces reflecting the setting sun.
Up at Beech Nut, the cold stung my fingers. (Liz had on mittens, I noticed.) But the sun glowed warmly as it sunk behind the ridge—a happening that seemed to take no more than a minute. Above, the clouds glowed, interspaced with strips of cerulean; and above them the vault rose into ever darker shades of blue. Coming down, we caught sight of the horns of a new moon.
No more owls, although we looked for ’em. No more birds of any kind. Just a dim landscape and a fire in the southwestern sky.
Tonight, now that the new moon has set, the stars seem faint and fuzzy. No doubt some clouds up there hovering between them and my eyes.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Barred owl
2. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
3. Hairy woodpecker
Elsewhere
4. American crow
Sky on fire.
Tags: American crow, barred owl, black-capped chickadee, hairy woodpecker
