American crow.

Sun shone, and the world warmed accordingly. I’m mildly stunned at such pleasant weather so early in the year—could it be a sign of climate change? Whatever, the birds didn’t seem to mind much. Crows were hanging around out back of my place, as usual, cawing and carousing. Chickadees out back, as well, and house sparrows across the road. In town were the usual herring gulls and wheeling flocks of pigeons.

American coots.

Then Jack and I gassed up and headed to Beech Hill by way of Chickawaukie Lake. The lake’s still wide open—again, unusual for this season—and the hundreds of coots out there lured us into the muddy parking lot of the public swim beach. Despite the bright, angling sun, great dark clouds were flying by to the north, out behind our destination hill. The coots fluttered for short distances then clustered together. Out beyond them, I saw a pair of common goldeneyes and a loon. Nearer, just a few yards away on the grass of the park, a female mallard ambled along.

What with the stout wind blowing those clouds around, I knew it’d be kind of chilly up the hill, never mind the mild temperature. A handful of cars in the lot, many fewer than yesterday. Crows cawed, we saw the coots, we met Amy, land trust volunteer coordinator, headed down; she told of some kind of icy precipitation up there not long before, although you’d never have suspected it by the brilliant blue sky above us. That is, unless you took a look at the big blue cloud sailing off to the northeast, toward Mount Desert Island. The brisk wind chilled my bare hands, but our brisk pace kept my pulse-rate high. A lovely hike, all in all.

Cloud.

Earlier tonight, I got a look at lovely Venus, the “evening star,” headed down beyond the oaks. Above, Jupiter danced with the waxing moon. A clear night sky above. Orion’s belt. Sirius.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 2:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. American crow (voice)
2. American coot
3. Black-capped chickadee (voice)

Elsewhere

4. House sparrow
5. Herring gull
6. Rock pigeon
7. Common goldeneye
8. Mallard
9. Common loon

Beech Hill.