Date: 1/27/25 5:21 am From: Ted Levin <tedlevin1966...> Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] VTBIRD Digest - 21 Jan 2025 to 26 Jan 2025 (#2025-13)
Thank you, Pam. Although I walk every morning at sunrise, rain or shine,
the mornings I'm motivated to write (or have the time) are the most
enjoyable.
Onward and upward,
Ted
On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 6:46 AM Pamela Ploof <pamela.ploof...> wrote:
> Thank You Ted Levin for painting a visual story in my mind of the birds
> and landscape of Hurricane Hill …. Nice to learn about birds in the context
> of their environment in this window of time they are occupying.
> Pam Ploof
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jan 27, 2025, at 12:00 AM, VTBIRD automatic digest system <
> <LISTSERV...> wrote:
> >
> > There is 1 message totaling 38 lines in this issue.
> >
> > Topics of the day:
> >
> > 1. 26 January 2025: Hurricane Hill (1,100 feet), WRJ
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:55:16 -0500
> > From: Ted Levin <tedlevin1966...>
> > Subject: 26 January 2025: Hurricane Hill (1,100 feet), WRJ
> >
> > 7:09 a.m. (two minutes before sunrise). Fourteen degrees, wind South five
> > miles per hour, gusting to thirteen. Sky: categorically dull, blue-gray
> > overcast, with a slight blush—heaven chilled like a cold cheek.
> >
> > Crows crisscrossing the sky quietly, into and out of the wind. Don't
> their
> > eyes tear up in the breeze? On the far side of the hill, raven asserts
> > itself on a cold morning, guttural and garrulous—a bird of conviction
> > communing with the wind.
> >
> > Mourning doves, talkative feathers, a slurred whistle. Goldfinch, hidden
> in
> > the bushes, calls. A roving flock of robins passes over the hill, from
> one
> > river valley to the next—an endless search for withered fruit.
> >
> > Barred owl on a horizontal red maple branch, framed by the trunk, a
> > brown-streaked, grayish bird in front of a gray-streaked trunk. Until the
> > owl spins its head, I mistake it for a patch of lichen, albeit a
> > cartoonish owl patch. Stares at bird feeders. Squirrels conspicuous by
> > their absence.
> >
> > Department of Hope: pileated setting up territory, drums somewhere in the
> > tower of oaks. Primes daybreak, loud, resonant, repetitive. Hammers life
> > into the bright, shadowless morning. Hairy woodpecker announces his
> > presence, drums in a roadside sugar maple—soft counterpoint to pileated.
> > Chickadees, titmice, and white-breasted nuthatches singing. Not
> > persistently... just enough to remind me Earth turns on its axis and no
> > winter lasts forever.
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > End of VTBIRD Digest - 21 Jan 2025 to 26 Jan 2025 (#2025-13)
> > ************************************************************
>
