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Watching short eared owls
hunt voles, harriers harass short eared owls,
tree sparrows pecking at invisible foodstuffs in
snow banks and parking lots, cardinals perching
with their feathers fluffed up, and squirrels
scurrying along fences while snow gently falls
all around almost makes up for the bitter cold
streak we've been in for so long. And besides
that it's just plain fun. A northern harrier
went talon to talon with a short eared owl out
over the ice and neither of them had any prey to
be fighting over. It was a dramatic aerial
ballet though. While I was watching the tree
sparrows, a white throated sparrow joined them.
I'd forgotten just how tiny tree sparrows are
until the white throated sparrow looked like
Godzilla next to them. At one point I had a tree
sparrow, the white throated sparrow, and the
cardinal lined up in graduated order of size all
in sight at the same time.
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Today's Bird
Sightings
Plum Island
red-tailed hawk 1
northern harrier 2
gray catbird 1
American tree sparrow 8
American crow 5
short eared owl 3
Canada goose 22
northern shrike 1
herring gull 8
blue jay 3
downy woodpecker 1
black capped chickadee 2
white throated sparrow 1
northern cardinal 1
black duck 24
red breasted merganser 2
common goldeneye 1
Newbury Landing
hooded merganser 4
red breasted merganser 9
common goldeneye 32
bufflehead 30
Today's Reading
The Measure of All Things by Ken Alder, Winter
World by Bernd Heinrich
This Year's Reading
2003
Book List
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