Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2012

Wet Winged Wednesday

To maine-birds: Misty morning at the Wells Reserve gradually turned to drizzle over an hour-long walk. Sparrows seemed less skittish than usual, with dozens of white-throats, nearly as many songs, a few white-crowns, and a swamp. Yellow-rumped warblers were everywhere, often mixing with the sparrows in foraging flocks. Single redstart, black-throated blue warbler, blue-headed vireo, and creeper. Red-breasted nuthatches easily outnumbered white-breasted. Pair of rusty blackbirds beside the dike at the bottom of the beach trail. Osprey – I think it was only one – over the beach and marsh. Maybe a pintail, but by then the binoculars were just about useless. Both kinglets wrapped it up.

Ending a short walk with my first Common Buckeye

Almost no sun for three days and cool, damp air left the farmhouse office a bit chilly this morning. 60 to start and only 65 by lunchtime. Around the noon hour, the sun began making an appearance and clouds began to separate, but a strong breeze suggested it would still be too cool to sit on the porch with a sandwich. After downing the ham and cheese in the dining room, I decided to get blood pumping and set out for a short walk. It was warmer outside than in. The wind was from the southwest, making it feel relatively balmy. I marched to the Muskie Trail, entered the trees, and stopped to enjoy the warmth. I had spotted a monarch and a sulfur while crossing the field and here I picked up a red admiral. Birds were very quiet, though, with just an occasional call from a towhee, a jay, and a couple of catbirds. A small mammal crossed the trail ahead of me. Mink? It was a bit over a foot long, with a tail maybe a third the length of its dark brown body. It crept quickly out of sight.