Birch.
This say began sunny but soon turned overcast. A high, even overcast, a sort of protective ceiling, that dimmed the daylight into something like you might find in a room at early evening. I’ve always appreciated an overcast day like this. It feels somehow comforting to me.
Fires.
The light in the sky is diminishing anyway, at this season. Our tilted planet spins, as it always has, replacing summer’s lingering glow here in the Northern Hemisphere with an early darkness that reveals Orion and Sirius rising. Aware of the decreasing photoperiod, I left my busy workday a little early to tackle errands in town. Wanted to get a Beech Hill hike in before nightfall.
Plenty of road birds today: crow, house sparrow, two species of gull, pigeon, jay. Jack and I pulled into an empty parking lot under a lowering gray sky. Chickadees in the fringes. A robin somewhere down the southern slope. A crow flapping by, cawing.
The fields are going brown. The far fields, in fact—the blueberry barrens across the valley—were burning, set fire to by careful stewards just ahead of the promised rain.
No coots at the lake that I could see. But quite a few white-throated sparrows (I’m pretty sure they were) flitting low amid the bushes along the trail.
The first tiny raindrops hit the windshield as we had just started home. Four or five mourning doves perched on a utility line took wing as we drove past. And as evening came, the rain did, too—a gentle but soaking rain.
Red patch.
Now, tonight, most of the rain has passed, apparently, leaving a sound of dripping in the woodlands. I heard a single treefrog out there, too.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
2. American crow
3. American robin (voice)
4. White-throated sparrow (voice)
Elsewhere
5. House sparrow
6. Herring gull
7. Rock pigeon
8. Ring-billed gull
9. Mourning dove
Tags: American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, white-throated sparrow
