Moon.
The weather experts insisted it’d be getting cold last night. Well, they were right. Despite the brilliant angular morning sunlight, the air temperature hovered in the single digits first thing—or maybe 10 degrees (F). Plus, there was a nice little wind goin’ on. Sweet.
On first venturing out, I noted the usual crows and the voices of chickadees out back. The crows seemed emotionally involved in their little neighborhood community; the chickadees seemed, well, happy. A herring gull wheeled by in the achingly, cloudlessly blue sky.
Beech Hill from Chickawaukie Lake.
Invoicing day. Yuck. But Jack and I got out of there finally shortly after 3 p.m. to take care of some errands in town. More herring gulls, pigeons, a solitary starling fluttering up to perch on the top of a utility pole. Then we took off out Route 17, headed inland toward Beech Hill. (En route, a crazy motorist zipped past me even though I was going five miles an hour over the speed limit. Within moments, he’d had to slow for pokey traffic and I was on his tail. Figures.) On a lark I veered off into the Chickawaukie Lake turnout to get a distant photo of noble Beech Nut perched atop the hill.
A few minutes after that, we were pulling into the parking lot. No surprise that we were the only ones there. I can’t imagine a starker contrast, weather-wise, than between yesterday and today. A day ago we’d had a spring-like thaw; today we had strong wind and deep frigidity. In fact, after we’d slipped and slid up the trail far enough to reach the photogenic birch, I had half a mind to turn right around—but the wind was at our backs, and that dissuaded me.
Penobscot Bay from the porch of Beech Nut.
We continued higher. I didn’t expect to list any birds up there today, but, lo, coming around the final curve before the summit I couldn’t help but notice three or four herring gulls circling far off to the east, just this side of the bay. I also couldn’t help but notice we’d turned directly into the wind, and I got an instantaneous ice-cream headache. We hurried along and took refuge on the porch of Beech Nut. I wondered if Jack was similarly uncomfortable, but he didn’t let on.
We stayed only a moment then started back down. One nice contrast from yesterday is that the hard-packed trail, now frozen solid, offered relatively firm footing, and we managed good speed. Didn’t stop for many photos. Pulled my scarf up over my face—yep, I remembered to bring a scarf (and, perhaps needless to mention, gloves)—and actually enjoyed the bracing trip down.
Birch.
Noteworthy also was the fact of a sky nearly wholly lacking clouds. (I thought I detected a few flimsy ones way out over the islands.) Otherwise, not a lot to say. Except—man, was it fucking cold.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Herring gull
Elsewhere
2. American crow
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Rock pigeon
5. European starling
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, European starling, herring gull, rock pigeon
