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| a male cardinal • photo by Sandy Bacon |
Five degrees below
freezing and I am walking the Gurnet again. I guess that I am a full-fledged
New Englander. Yesterday was a GREAT bird day with a red-shouldered hawk
perching within 20 feet of our eight inch light fluffy snowed in casa. We all
watched the show for at least four hours. At first I told Abel that it was a
red-tailed hawk but when I Googled it, I saw it was actually a red-shouldered. My
very first sighting. Love is a many splendored bird. His feathers were just
beautiful. They were many red-shouldered hawks in the 1950’s until the
red-taileds came back big time. Sandy snapped a photo or two or three or
twenty. Here is one or two or three. What a beautiful, magical bird. Si?
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| red-shouldered hawk • photo by Sandy Bacon |
I park at the pavilion
on Duxbury Beach. The tide is still high so I have to walk the gravel road
south toward Saquish. The sky is blue; the snow is white. There is no wind.
Mexico in less than three days, but this is spectacular Also. Dad called ….
never mind. Right away I come up on three cars checking out a snowy owl. The man
that catches them at Logan Airport has relocated 24 of them here this winter
from the taxi and runways of Boston. A car stops. The driver asks me if that is,
in fact, a snowy owl. It is the first one he and his son have ever seen. I have
seen so many that I rarely stop now to eyeball them.
As we talk, a harrier
falcon with a face just like a peregrine flies right in front of us. What a sight!
I see him hunting, flying, cruising, 6-10 feet over the dune grass, nearly
every time I walk Duxbury Beach.
Before the father leaves, he tells me that this
very morning he spotted an eagle in the west bay. What a day we are all having.
There are loons swimming
in Duxbury Bay and the Powder Point Bridge is still covered with yesterday’s
snow. Just past the Second Crossover I see vehicle activity and instead of
walking the beach, I continue on the gravel road. Good move. There is this face
as big as a dinner plate on top of a snowed-in dune. “It is a female snowy,” the
lady with the scope tells me. She has been here since 7:00am. It is now 1:00pm.
Some days are better
than others. Wow! What a day. There has to be a God.
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| blue jays • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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| a male cardinal • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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| downy woodpecker • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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| turkeys on our deck • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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| turkeys on the march • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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| a junco • photo by Sandy Bacon |
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