American crow.
Another overcast morning, but with a sort of animated quality to it. Something in the air—perhaps brought there by the slightly earlier sunrise. When I first stepped out, crows were hollering at each other from the bare branches of the oaks out back. I heard chickadees back there, too. And a hairy woodpecker’s bright, repeated note from somewhere in the periphery. On a surface of snow out front, faint footprints of a walking crow curled daintily around.
The open trail.
A few scant glimpses of sunlight, but mostly cloudy. Spent another weekend day at my desk but managed to drag myself and my dog out for a stroll a little earlier than yesterday. Just about the time it began to snow.
Light snow, but steady, blowing in from the southeast, seemed like—a rather uncommon direction. A single car in the parking lot, and sure enough we met a chilly couple hurrying down. (They commented on the weather conditions, which were not exactly balmy.) We took our time ascending, stopping now and then to scan and sniff. Toward the top, the well-trodden path had drifted over, but it wasn’t hard to follow. Saw signs of humans and dogs romping off-trail.
The snow, the sky—despite the cold and insistent wind, it seemed to me a lovely scene. We could’ve stayed longer but headed back down.
No birds on the hill today. Just the places birds sometimes go: the stand of spruces at the summit, the little oak down the southern slope, the copse of trees by Beech Hill Road, low foliage near the parking lot. I have plenty of memories of the birds in these places—the warblers and owls and hawks and catbirds, the towhees and juncos and sparrows. No birds today, but I can wait. Time flies. It won’t be long.
Self portrait.
The snow stopped soon enough, and tonight is quiet and mild. A kind of lull. But winter’s not over. Supposed to get right nippy again around here in a day or two.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
No birds seen or heard on the hill today.
Elsewhere
1. American crow
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Hairy woodpecker
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, hairy woodpecker
