It’s not often we have cloudless days here at the 44th parallel. Oh, we have quite a few nearly cloudless days—nothing to see overhead but a brilliant, piercing blue—but almost always, if you look far offshore, you can spy a few scraps of vapor hovering beyond the far bay islands.

Today was the rare exception. Not a single cloud anywhere in the sky.

Which meant a bright warming sun. The “warming” part was significant, in that the air temperature would’ve been plenty nippy without it. Ironically, the first bird on my list today appeared in the shady eaves of the back side of my place: a chickadee, poking around just outside the bathroom window. I first heard its subtle peep, then spotted it just an arm’s length away. But then when Jack and I took our first walk around front, on the eastern side, where the sun’s warmth had already taken hold, we sure appreciated Ol’ Sol.

As dog was doing his business, I heard today’s second bird: a golden-crowned kinglet. It sounded quite close, and so I scanned the trees above us. Sure enough, there was the tiny guy, poking around in some junipers. As I watched, it dipped very near, clung to a small twig, leaned down, and commenced to sip water from the tip of a little icicle hanging from below, warming in the morning sun. Lord, did I wish I’d had my camera—it would’ve been the most amazing photo of a kinglet I could ever have taken—but just the miracle of the moment was enough. The little bird even glanced down at me. A couple times. As if to say “good morning.”

But as if that weren’t enough, come midday I heard the crows suddenly shouting to each other about something. (I’d seen seven of them perched in a tree behind the neighbor’s place just before.) They seemed to have chased toward the front of the place, out over toward the road. I grabbed my camera and looked out a front window. I saw no crows—but I did see an eagle. A big, handsome adult bird soaring in great circles out over Clam Cove, barely flapping its wings. I asked Jack (who was also interested) to stay inside and snuck out to snatch some photos. The bird, cooperatively, soared quite near before heading away again.

I live in a wonderful place.

We headed to Beech Hill in mid-afternoon on this most cloudless of cloudless days. No one else there, just dog and me. And a hairy woodpecker calling across the road. The trail was a little slick, but we didn’t much care. We made swift progress up and down—heard, then saw, a pair of crows flying over on our ascent—with a pause to view the brilliant bay down the snowy eastern slope. Met a lady on snowshoes on our way down and exchanged a few words of shared thanks for such a magical cloudless day.

Tonight, dusk came just a little bit later. It still being winter, the temperature fell. The stars shone brightly. (A cloudless night?) And a considerable wind rose to cause the winter trees to sway up our miniature coastal hill.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
2. American crow

Elsewhere

2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Golden-crowned kinglet
4. Tufted titmouse
5. Bald eagle
6. Herring gull

Tags: American crow, bald eagle, black-capped chickadee, golden-crowned kinglet, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, tufted titmouse

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 at 9:37 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.