Blackberries.
The appearance of ripe blackberries never fails to astonish me. I’ll be hiking along a scrubby summer trail one sunny day in August, and suddenly there they are. It’s as if they appear by magic overnight. (Perhaps they do.) And then I eat a handful.
American lady.
This day began a little soggy—which perhaps shouldn’t have surprised anyone, considering yesterday’s drenching—but dried up pretty quickly. The low clouds pulled back to reveal a blue sky beyond a slow stampede of great, high cumulus. There were gulls up there, too, and cardinals singing in the shady tangles out back. I spent a relatively leisurely day at my desk, catching up from a relatively frantic weekend, rediscovering my bearings.
Early in afternoon, with no sign of a a rumored thundershower, I jumped on my bike and pedaled to town. Bank, post office. Turned and pedaled the other way up to where I like to buy my tubes (I might’ve forgotten to mention the flat tire I had to change on Saturday). I’ll bet the high temperature didn’t rise out of the 70s (F), but I worked up plenty of perspiration nonetheless. At one point, in Rockport Village, a robin darted across the road not three feet in front of me—so close I could see the whites of its eyes. OK, not really. But close enough.
Coming back south I noticed a small collection of Canada geese in a little pond. Heard a nuthatch. Mourning doves on utility lines. Roadside crows.
After work, I decided Jack might like a hike up the open Beech Hill trail for a change. Also, I felt like avoiding the prospect of larval deer ticks on the wooded trails, for this is the season.
Gray catbird.
The sun shone down around the piles of mountainous clouds, and my bird list began to mount. First I heard the coos of a dove. Then the familiar voices of goldfinch and waxwing. By the time we reached the summit (it doesn’t take that long), I’d added a raven and an osprey to my list. We took a quick side-trip down along the blueberry fields on the wooded side, and the ospreys kept screaming. I spotted them finally—a family apparently, stretching their wings—soaring lazily over the northern hillside. It was down along those fields when I stumbled on the blackberries.
I’m sure I let out a whispered cry. “Whoa.” “Cool.” Something like that. First I took some pictures, and then I picked some blackberries.
Blueberries might be sweeter and more delectable. But there’s something about the little bite, the slight crunch of a ripe, juicy blackberry. There’s a lot of juice in a blackberry. I introduced Jack to their sweet-sour juiciness.
This cool, blue evening the sky cleared completely. And the waxwing moon set whitely in the southeast sky. It must be a blackberry moon.
Later: after midnight, I spotted a possum loping swiftly along the shoulder of Route 1, headed in my direction. It took a left into my parking lot and looked for a moment like it was headed up the back stairs—but then I heard the slight sound of it climbing the hill.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Mourning dove (voice)
2. American goldfinch (voice)
3. Cedar waxwing
4. Chestnut-sided warbler
5. Common raven (voice)
6. Eastern towhee
7. Osprey
8. American robin (voice)
9. Common yellowthroat (voice)
10. Savannah sparrow (voice)
11. Gray catbird
12. Song sparrow
13. Alder flycatcher (voice)
14. American crow (voice)
15. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
16. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
17. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
18. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Elsewhere
19. Northern cardinal
20. Herring gull
21. Canada goose
Southeastern field.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, Canada goose, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch
