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Journal of a Sabbatical |
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June 27, 2001 |
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in the pocket |
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Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society Today's
Bird Sightings Today's Reading: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird, A Flora of Essex County by Stuart K. Harris Today's
Starting Pitcher: 2001
Book List Photos: Samantha Sammy Black-eyed Susans Deptford Pink Deptford Pink & Rough-fruited Cinquefoil St. John's Wort |
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Today's dominant cat is Savannah, perched on top of the big yellow bucket when she's not begging Roy for donut crumbs. She makes a beeline for his shirt pocket. She just knows there's donut crumbs in there. Roy offers her a peanut butter cracker, which she disdains. She rubs up against Roy, head-butts him, does her cutest cute kitty act, and then starts licking his shirt! Finally, he gives in and fishes some donut crumbs out of the pocket and puts them on the counter for Savannah. She laps them up and then keeps on licking the counter. When she's back on top of the bucket, he gives her a couple more crumbs and she ends up licking the fleecy mat that's on top of the bucket for Sandy's pleasure and comfort. Sandy is in the laundry room on top of
the second dryer. Oddly, even with Miss Newburyport gone
from the original dryer, Sandy doesn't take that spot. That
could be because the staff sent that leopard print pillow
that was on it home with Miss Newburyport. Or it could be he
really likes It's extremely hot out. On the radio someone is talking about making sure to check on elderly neighbors. Roy says "I do that all the time! I look in the mirror!" Bob is back from his bus driving course and swapping naval stories with Roy. I chime in that the military seems to be at DEFCON 4 or something and I haven't heard of such an alert since the cold war. According to Bob, even a grillion years ago when he was in the navy, Aden was not a very safe port. Oh how I'm going to miss all this naval talk.
It's amazing how many of the pretty plants I've been admiring this spring and summer are introduced species. Even the St. John's wort that I photographed is a European species although there are native North American species of St. John's wort. Rough-fruited cinquefoil is introduced and I read somewhere that it has become invasive. Even the pretty little Deptford pink is introduced (but not invasive). It's hard to picture what this landscape looked like before European plants were introduced. A house sparrow lands on the ground next to a patch of rough-fruited cinquefoil. We three are all aliens in North America. Something to think about. |
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Copyright © 2001, Janet I. Egan |
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Miss
Newburyport has finally gone to her new home with Dr. Amelia
from downstairs! Hooray!
arranging
himself around the vent hose. Who knows?
Shy
little Priscilla starts to come toward Roy but stops and
stiffens when he reaches out to pet her. Kendra does the
getting Priscilla to rub against her legs and actually allow
petting by sitting on the floor and offering her little bits
of dry food trick. Bianca and other cats gather round
looking for treats too. Roy gets down on all fours and
crawls over to Kendra meowing the whole time. This cracks up
the humans but still doesn't impress Priscilla. I guess
she'll cozy up to Roy on her terms on her time
scale.
After
the ritual Angelina's veggie sub and (believe it or not)
Fowle's coffee despite the heat, it's the cedar waxwing show
at the refuge. Cedar waxwings are all over the place.
They're calling and singing from everywhere and there are
way more than the 5 I can actually count. Four of them are
hovering over the marsh grass catching bugs just like
kingbirds. I've never seen cedar waxwings do that. I thought
they ate mostly berries. For the longest time I associated
cedar waxwings with autumn because they'd descend in flocks
to devour al the ripe berries. Now I associate them with
high summer and kingbirds. Shows what I know about cedar
waxwings.
At
the osprey nest platform near the Pines Trail, I can see an
adult bending over the nestlings with something in her beak
to feed them but can't really see the nestlings. I don't
want to stand around with the scope because I'm being
besieged by salt marsh mosquitoes. I heard some mosquito
expert on NPR the other day saying that the salt marsh
mosquitoes don't carry Triple-E or West Nile virus, but I'm
skeptical. I've just sprayed on the last of the insect
repellent and must remember to buy some more for tomorrow's
plover warding (what wardens do is ward). Anyway, the
mosquitoes are driving me away from observing the osprey
nest.
The
color yellow is still everywhere in the meadows and
roadsides, but gone from the dunes as the Hudsonia
has gone by but cinquefoil, black-eyed susan, St. John's
wort, and even some goldenrod are all in bloom. Purple
loosestrife is starting to bloom too, unfortunately, but it
does seem like there's less of it. Such a shame something so
pretty is so invasive and destructive.