Beech Nut.
Up early. Sunny morning. Cold. When I first glanced out the back French doors, I saw a little bird flitting about the trunks of the oaks and maples. Flitting and flitting. I grabbed my binoculars and saw it was a golden-crowned kinglet. I shouldn’t have been surprised—kinglets do that. Flit and flit.
Common raven.
Spent the morning at my desk. A big truck drove up out front. A tree-maintenance crew puttering along in front of some phone-company linemen. I watched the workers take down a large maple limb rising beneath the lines and up over the road. I couldn’t help thinking about how many years it took that limb to grown so large and yet how quickly the men took it down. Less than a minute, I’d say.
In mid-afternoon, Jack and I took our Beech Hill break. We were alone on the sunny hill today. No wind to speak of in the parking lot; plenty of wind at the summit—rather, just enough to make me bring up my hood. I did wear gloves, at least, though my fingers still felt the cold.
As we ascended, a big bird suddenly rose above the northern field—a big black bird. It didn’t take me long to see it was a raven. You can tell a raven pretty quickly, I’ve learned, by its nonchalant behavior when compared to crows. It won’t flap its wings much. It’ll sail a while, flap a couple times, sail. A raven just looks like its content in its skin. Or feathers—whatever. It didn’t seem much concerned with the nearness of Jack and me.
Looking south.
Such a blue-blue sky. Just a few ephemeral-seeming clouds. It hasn’t yet gotten warm enough to melt much of the recent snowfall. We few hiking humans and dogs had created a narrow path through the drifts.
In the bright sunlight, the landscape seemed in especially crisp focus. Returning, I marveled at how sharply the hills stood out against the western sky. Just as we were about to reach the parking lot, I heard something—a pair of high, short, thin whistles. A kinglet in a clump of trees. I never did see the bird, but it was flitting there somewhere.
In evening, while running an errand, I found myself walking beneath a beautiful midnight-blue sky with a fine-horned new moon in it. I love the new moon.
Tonight the stars are miraculously tiny points of twinkling light.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 2:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Common raven
2. Golden-crowned kinglet (voice)
Elsewhere
3. American crow
4. Herring gull
5. Ring-billed gull
6. Rock pigeon
The open trail.
Tags: American crow, common raven, golden-crowned kinglet, herring gull, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon
