Journal of a Sabbatical

November 15, 2000

in the wind

Today's Bird Sightings:
Salisbury - MRFRS Parking Lot
tree sparrow (3)
Plum Island
American crow (4)
greater yellowlegs (1)
Canada goose (290)
American black duck (150+)
mallard (42)
herring gull (16)
northern harrier (2)
great black back gull (1)
sanderling (200)
gadwall (36)
bufflehead (4)
mute swan (6)
black-bellied plover (2)
Mammals
coyote (1)
Salisbury Beach
herring gull (61)
ring-billed gull (15)

Today's Reading:Autumn from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Sid's got a full house again/still. The only difference is Frisco is actually walking around in the main room, not hiding in his own litter box or Sid's. I sure hope Sid and some of his friends can find a nice barn where they can be social and colonial and all those things feral cats like to do only in a nice warm and safe setting where they are well cared for and earn their keep by keeping the barn free of rodents.

An ambulance passed me on the way to the cat shelter with sirens blaring and I thought "Oh no, Sandy has finally eaten Roy!" However, it kept going over the bridge so whatever the emergency was it wasn't on Bridge Rd.. Sandy is full of himself this morning as always. The donut thing is getting out of hand. Roy gave him a few bites of donut and then wrapped it up and put in on the shelf over the sink for when he needs a snack. Sandy located the wrapped donut and tried to get it off the shelf! The moral of the story is to give Sandy his own whole donut? Some donut-loving person with extremely thick skin would be perfect for Sandy. Either that or somebody who wears body armor around the house (somebody in the Society for Creative Anachronism or something?). 

We interrupt this dishwashing experience for a photo op of Mandy hugging a stuffie. Kendra comes out of the office asking if my camera is up here (I sometimes foolishly leave it in the car -gasp shudder) then tells me Mandy has been grooming this stuffie and is now sleeping curled around it. To heck with the dishes. I whip off the gloves, dry myself off and sprint for the office before Mandy wakes up. I got two good shots, the one shown here is the one I like best. I like it despite the fact that I have been having an extreme self-esteem plunge about photography lately. This stems partly from the difficulties I had with the setup in the herbarium in Beijing (even a good photographer would have been tempted to throw that copy stand out the window) and partly from comparing my photos to other people's. Anyway, I think I got the total cuteness of Mandy even if it's technically imperfect.

I couldn't get Henrietta to look at me last week, so I tried again this week with better luck. She doesn't seem quite as scared. Henrietta is a former feral and kind of timid but I think with patience she actually will be a house cat.

Speaking of cats coming around with time, Miss Newburyport was downright affectionate with me last night after the Purrfect Companions meeting. She not only tolerated my petting her but she actually rubbed her head against me. She continued being friendly and tolerant to me this morning. I think somehow she has finally concluded that people are not only OK, but to be sought after. I kind of like her. She has grown on me and on everybody.

New this week is Duchess, a 2 year old female who was surrendered. She's so sweet! How could anybody give her up? She posed for me with this "adopt me" look. Oh, I want to adopt everybody in the place today. The kittens in the office are the loudest purrers I've ever heard. Mandy is still doing cute things with the stuffie. Miss Newburyport just looks beautiful sleeping all curled up. Stop me before I become a crazy cat lady!

It clouded up just in time for me to go birding after lunch of course. All morning it's clear as a bell, but as soon as I get out the binoculars the sky turns pewter.

Wilbur is sitting on my shoulder as I write this and his tail is thumping on the space bar. He has a really thick stub tail that moves all the time (hence I can't read his body language well) and he types with it. What he types makes no sense. So I keep having to hit the delete key all the time. Makes it hard to write a coherent entry.

That bluet I commented on last week is still in bloom. I am now sure it is a bluet. I guess spring flowers do sometimes bloom in November at least according to what I've been reading in Thoreau's journal. Other things in bloom are dandelions (tall and regular ones), red clover, celandine, goldenrod, yarrow (tons of it), white clover, and I thought I saw a couple of plants of Queen Anne's lace. The wind blows milkweed, thistle down, and all those other little white particles that carry seeds all over the place so it seems like it's snowing. How early 19th century scientists could think plants didn't travel from where they were created is beyond me. The air is so thick with traveling seeds I have to double check that it's really not snow.

The wind is about 20 times worse on the Hellcat dike. It penetrates through my winter jacket, and flannel shirt, and the thermal shirt underneath. Yikes! Waves arise and pass through the grass as fast as they do through the water. A greater yellowlegs stands stock still on the edge of the north pool looking like it's hanging onto the shore for dear life. Ducks, geese, and gulls are too windblown and hidden between the whitecaps for me to identify. Some people in the parking lot ask me if I've seen anything good and I tell them "No, my binoculars shook too much." I should've told them they'd need an anchor to hold down their scope.

I walk on the beach a little bit at Sandy Point, which is more sheltered, hence not so cold. I look for sea ducks from the platform at Lot 7 but the whitecaps are too high and the tide is almost up to the platform anyway. I'm sure the sea ducks have found a better place to be (like maybe Salisbury Beach). I try to photograph a huge patch of celandine in full bloom next to the board walk but it's moving so fast in the wind it's impossible.

Miraculously, the sky starts to clear. Hordes and hordes of black ducks start landing in big noisy flocks all over the marsh (which is very high and full of water). I stop counting them. Flocks of Canada geese start landing too. I lose count of them. As I'm watching the black ducks and the geese land, four black and white heads pop up out of the water with droplets sparkling in the newly visible sun. Buffleheads. They look like they have so much fun diving and surfacing all over the place in the bright water. A pair of black-bellied plovers lands on a dry grassy spot. They look incongruous surrounded by ducks. A northern harrier hovers over a flock of gadwalls and I start to wonder if they eat gadwalls and am I about to see that happen, but it plummets into the grass past where the gadwalls are and I don't really see what it catches but it's far too small to be a gadwall. A whole lot of life is going on in this animal realm.

I thought I might have more luck in Salisbury, especially since I'd seen three tree sparrows in the parking lot of the cat shelter as I was leaving, so I took off for Salisbury Beach State Reservation. There were plenty of gulls, but no unusual ones. Not a sparrow nor bunting nor longspur of any kind put in an appearance while I was there. I stopped by the shelter again to pick up my coffee cup, which I left there this morning, got some coffee at Fowle's and went home to change and shower before the board meeting feeling unbelievably wired. I don't think the coffee was entirely to blame.