Apple.
I think there ought to be six seasons: Winter, Mud Season, Spring, Summer, Pratfall, and Fall. I suppose that’s because I got thinking about pratfalls today. Slapstick routines that happen in everyday life. And make you laugh.
Common yellowthroat.
It rained overnight. The morning oozed onward, cool and cloudy—last weekend’s heat, a scrap of memory. I wore jeans for a change. House sparrows—a family of them—fluttered around out front, perched on my Three Islands Press sign. Cardinals and house finches sang as I spent hours at my desk, solving puzzles. Could’ve ridden my bike, but blew it off. Instead, I had an afternoon coffee and pressed on.
At the end of the day, coming up the stairs, the toe of my right sandal caught the tread—too much sitting, I suppose—and I stumbled, and the contents of the coffee mug I was carrying splashed up directly into my face. Just as if my hand belonged to some merry prankster. As coffee (cold, thankfully) dripped from my chin, I had to laugh.
As Jack and I then started up the chilly hill, and we came upon the stretch of trail where the baby porcupine kept tumping over backward, I found myself chuckling again. And I recalled last year, when I tromped off through some off-trail weeds to attempt a photo of a redstart, and I tripped over Jack’s leash and fell on my butt. My left foot happened to be under my butt, and I heard a snap—still, had someone been watching, it surely would’ve seemed comical. I ended up limping a little for many months thereafter, only this year realizing my left ankle had finally heeled. Ha.
Staghorn sumac.
No sign of any fairy-tail beast along the trails today. But I did hear a crazy, agitated robin. It delivered not just the usual peep-peep! alarm notes a robin will normally make, but a frantic-sounding, high pitched series of near-screams. I got a glimpse of the bird up in the poplars. I suspect it was a youngster—maybe a first year male, feeling its oats. It kept ahead of us up in the trees, carrying on like crazy. Finally, as we rounded a turn, it flapped swiftly away. And a solitary feather drifted down and landed directly in front of us in the middle of the well-worn path. That struck me as pretty funny. A kind of figurative pratfall. I pocketed the feather (an interesting, gray-and-white one), and we continued on.
Not many deer flies in the cool and damp. I experimented with the few buzzing my head and decided they’re more persistent when we’re moving. Something about movement triggers their dive-bombing instinct. Interesting.
Notably, I heard the song of a titmouse in the lower woods. In the upper woods, there came the rapid-fire burst of little notes that I’ve come to recognize as belonging to fledgling chestnut-sided warblers. Catbirds, waxwings, yellowthroats, chickadees. A secretive alder flycatcher. Mostly silent veeries. more robins.
The blackberries are getting larger but remain green. Blueberries along the upper trail. And little green apples hanging from the apple trees.
Phoebe at the summit. Hazy hills.
Robin feather.
Tonight a thick, swirling fog has moved in. The temperature inside dipped to 70 degrees (F), so I closed nearly all the windows.
Bike ride or no, I shall sleep well tonight.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Veery
3. Common yellowthroat
4. American goldfinch
5. Tufted titmouse (voice)
6. American robin
7. Eastern towhee (voice)
8. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
9. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
10. Cedar waxwing
11. American crow
12. Gray catbird (voice)
13. Song sparrow
14. Eastern phoebe
15. Alder flycatcher (voice)
Elsewhere
16. Northern cardinal
17. House finch
18. House sparrow
19. Herring gull
20. Double-crested cormorant
21. Mourning dove
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-eyed vireo, song sparrowe, tufted titmouse, veery
