Journal of a Sabbatical

January 8, 2001

list of birds but no boats or firewood

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
northern harrier (1)
northern mockingbird (2)
short eared owl (1)
black duck (2)
Canada goose (25)
herring gull (8)
northern shrike (1)
Salisbury Beach
common goldeneye (7)
Bonaparte's gull (6)
black duck (16)
great black back gull (2)
herring gull (6)
Am. tree sparrow (5)
short eared owl (1)!
Mammals
harbor seal (21)

Today's Reading: Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian by Sarah Anna Emery, My Generation by Sarah Anna Emery

If that mockingbird don't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring... This particular mockingbird is very quiet. It didn't so much as make that harsh noise that sounds like it's giving you the raspberry never mind the complex songs made up of three repeats each of everything it's ever heard. It just sat there on top of a tree next to the road. Maybe it's thinking: "If that northern shrike comes 'round here again I'm gonna dive bomb it and chase it right off this island." Or maybe it's thinking: "Why are all these people with scopes looking at that owl and not at me? Is it because I don't eat voles?" Or maybe it isn't thinking at all. After all, it's a mockingbird, not a philosopher.

Hey! A two short-eared owl day! How about that!?! Whatever happened to the interabang? I distinctly remember reading about a new punctuation mark being introduced in like 1958 or something. I read about it in Weekly Reader when I was in the second grade. Yet, here I want to use one and and there ain't one on this or any other keyboard. I mean, c'mon, two short-eared owls in one day deserves an interabang.

Oh and I lied about no boats or firewood. I drove exactly the same route today and saw exactly the same blue tarps on the same boats and woodpiles. I did notice that one of the woodpiles is half covered with a blue tarp and half with a green one. And there was a house covered half in Tyvek and half in a blue tarp.