Foggy field.
A warmish, drizzly morning. Heard some crows out there. Heard a chickadee. Then, later, while driving around as the rain picked up, I saw many crows and herring gulls. They were about the only abundant species out there.
The rain persisted, letting up occasionally. Jack and I took off for Beech Hill late in the day fully expecting—at least I was—a messy trail.
American tree sparrow.
The rain was light but steady. The trail was intermittently slippery and slushy. Nothing like last weekend, at least, when every other step took my boot two feet down to where the running water was. Clearly running water coursed down under there today, too, but the track held firm enough that my feet didn’t much break through. Wet, though. And very foggy.
About half-way up, I stopped. I thought I’d heard the faint cheep! of a bird. Sure enough, there it was again, coming from the north side of the trail. Sounded like a sparrow, maybe. A white-throat? I didn’t think so. I stood for at least two-three minutes listening to its repeated cheeping and scanning the wet, brown grass and brush. It sounded quite near, but I saw nothing. We took a few steps toward it, thinking it might flush. Nothing. Then I spotted a dark shape in a bush maybe fifteen yards distant. Usually shapes like that end up being nothing but die-hard leaves—but this turned out to be a bird. The cheeping bird, no doubt. I trained my wet binoculars on it, and it was sure enough a sparrow. But what species?
Stepped a bit nearer and finally got a good look at it: reddish cap, dark eye-line, buffy sides. An American tree sparrow. It flitted away down the slope back from the way we’d come.
Machine.
So dog and I continued up, skirting the slicker, mushier spots. Beech Nut sat like an ephemeral memory atop the hill. A lot more snow had melted away, though the protected areas still held a couple feet of it.
We didn’t linger, turned and came back down—a little quicker, now that we knew just where to step. I couldn’t tell if the boulder-movers had taken this rainy day off: their big orange bucket machine sat in what looked to be the same spot as it had yesterday at that time (just beyond the photogenic birch). Nearing the base of the hill, I heard the sparrow again—calling the same sharp, intermittent cheep!—but I didn’t catch sight of it again.
Tonight the harbor horns are blowing and fog dims the light from the streetlamps. The snow is gone from the back deck, and even the tallest plow-drifts seem to have lost much of their impressive height. But I’m not fooled: before winter’s over with, we’ll surely see a little more snow.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. American tree sparrow
Elsewhere
2. American crow
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Herring gull
Sendero.
Tags: American crow, American tree sparrow, black-capped chickadee, herring gull
