Sunset sky over Rockland Harbor.
The sun rose today at 7:09 a.m. (ET); it set at 4:19 p.m. The photoperiod is lengthening, of course, having turned at the winter solstice, but the light of January differs from December’s in subtle, hard-to-pin-down ways. Maybe it’s the white of the remnant snow or the lack of water vapor in the air. Maybe waxing light simply differs from light waning. But the sunset sure seemed beautiful today.
Mallards.
The temperature stayed low—upper teens, low-twenties—and the wind got high in afternoon. Bird-wise, my day had chickadees (singing), crows (as usual), and a soaring herring gull. A single starling flew over the bank in town.
At the end of the day, I decided to head for the Rockland Breakwater to see what might be hanging around. I dressed for frigidity, but the wind had died down. The harbor’s edge at low tide was still. Mallards quacked in the shallows in the company of herring gulls. Across the water, the western sky glowed amazing shades of orange.
Today’s List
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. American crow
3. Herring gull
4. European starling
5. Mallard
Rockland Harbor, 12 January 2010.
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, European starling, herring gull, mallard
