Two islands.
I awoke to a dramatic overcast sky full of lumpy, cavernous blue clouds. At mid-morning, I figured I’d check on today’s college football schedule and discovered my DVR had pooched. That’s OK. My team has an off-week. Anyway, who needs TV?
Beech Hill.
Spent a productive day at my kitchen table—but kind of felt like I spent too long sitting. No matter, there’s always Beech Hill.
En route, dog and I took a swing through town, where major sewer projects have for several weeks caused all kinds of traffic confusion. Picked up my mail at the P.O. then figured we’d stop off at Chickawaukie Lake to look at coots. I was surprised to spot a great blue heron flapping slowly overhead as we pulled into the swim beach parking lot. Saw a cormorant sitting on a float—and a big flotilla of coots bobbing out toward the center of the pond. Beyond the coots, Beech Hill stood beneath a high sweeping curtain of gray clouds, even as a little sun broke through low in the western sky, bringing a glow to the fall foliage.
A pair of song sparrows flitted in front of us as we turned in. A jay hollered loudly above us as we got out of the pickup. The sky—what a sky. As we turned up the first rise, a wide ray of sunlight set the blueberry fields on fire.
Lone oak.
We found ourselves in shadow again while coming around to the summit, but great swaths of the bay shone brightly in the sun as a solitary sailboat glided by.
Heard crows, a nuthatch, a robin, a yellow-rump. Coming down, heard a flicker and a downy woodpecker. Plenty of birds about still—overshadowed today by a glorious fall landscape.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Song sparrow
2. Blue jay (voice)
3. American crow
4. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
5. American robin (voice)
6. Yellow-rumped warbler (voice)
7. Northern flicker (voice)
8. Downy woodpecker (voice)
Elsewhere
9. Black-capped chickadee
10. Herring gull
11. Ring-billed gull
12. Great blue heron
13. Double-crested cormorant
14. American coot
Autumn slope.
Tags: American coot, American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, double-crested cormorant, downy woodpecker, great blue heron, herring gull, northern flicker, ring-billed gull, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, yellow-rumped warbler
