Sunset.
A sunny, breezy morning. Warm enough for the thaw to continue. Last night late, I’d heard water rushing down the hill in the little brook beyond the neighbor’s yard. This morning, a sheet of water coursed lazily across the parking lot. The titmouse was calling again. And crows.
Got distracted with a bunch of desk work today and didn’t leave the house until late. Jack accompanied me directly to Beech Hill.
Liquid trail.
Met a fellow hiker in the parking lot readying for a trip up. Offered a quick greeting as proceeded on ahead. The snow and ice on the trail had gone grainy and soft—but not overly difficult to navigate. But the pack yet rises a foot or more above the earth, and you could see puddles and pools and streams of water through holes in the snow. Much of the main trail had simply turned to mud. We had a good, fast ascent under a dramatic cloud-filled sky. The setting sun faded in and out as the clouds moved slowly overhead. Dark and light and black and blue and gold.
Any snow had vanished from nearly the entire upper field, leaving it a dark, damp brown. Most of the remaining snow, in fact, lay along the trail itself—which also served as a stream for its own snow-melt. A muddy, spongy, wet, swift, pleasant hike.
At the summit, my eyes kept wanting to scan the amazing sky above the bay. As they did, the sun suddenly slipped through the clouds to illuminate the brown vegetation on a small island.
On our return, we met a young couple coming up the trail, then a little family with a camera and a dog. A couple of us took photos of the sunset.
The inland hills.
By then I’d figured it’d be a birdless hike. But as we got nearly back to the parking lot, I heard the whistle of a mourning dove’s wings—then I saw the bird, and another. As I watched the doves, a group of two or three hairy woodpeckers decided to begin chattering at each other from across the road. Not a birdless hike, after all.
Tonight, a half-moon is setting over the hill beyond the oaks out back. Its path is taking it a little to the north of west, I see. A mild night. Temperatures above freezing.
Meantime, on the other side of the world, people are contending with the dizzying aftermath of a gigantic earthquake in Japan.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Mourning dove
2. Hairy woodpecker
Elsewhere
3. American crow
4. Tufted titmouse
5. Herring gull
6. Mallard
Sky above the bay.
Tags: American crow, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, mallard, mourning dove, tufted titmouse
