Sit Spot days 4 - 6

Wed Mar 18 (day 4): Out at 12:30 pm. Wind! mostly from the south / south west. The gust pick up leaves and chase them along. You can hear it in the trees constantly, and the beech is making the shir /shir noise it makes -- one of its leaves rattles in a very particular way. The pond is patterned. A few mergansers. No bird calls, then 4 blackbirds go by north to south, fairly high, chattering. Two seem to be interacting in some way, fighting? Big news: a fly. The size of a house fly with the most beautiful iridescent green body and head. Quite stunning. Field grass is that light yellow brown beige. Across the pond the border is grass or reeds, light brown now, 2 or 3 ft high, in hummocks, maybe 15 ft deep, giving way to shrubs interspersed with trees. Close up my 'frond' plant: seems to be basal leaves growing in whorls from points along a trailing stem. There's a patch of it a few feet away that's a foot or two across, still mostly reddish purple 'dead'? leaves from another season. Maybe dormant's the word. Each leaf ( or stem ) has its set of 10 or so unevenly lobed leaves, about 1/2 in across, thin, hand shaped ie blunt bottom and lobes point a bit up. well I"ll take a picture one of these days. Then the purple green opposite leaved plant, the bedstraw, and leftovers from last year. Probably goldenseal stems. round, dead, points where the leaves were traveling up the stem in a sort of spiral, remnants of white fluff probably seeds and the bases of the flowers with 2-3 mm points in a circle, more than six I'd say. Flowers in a panicle on one side of the stem. Another flower head, six calyx points left on each tiny flower, again, traces of white fluff, also one side of the stem empty, thinner stalk. Grass: soft, clumped. Grass seed head, like a little version of wheat. Sky blue but through a hazy cloud cover, near the horizon in all directions it shades towards grey. No real sense of incoming storm at this point. Been a week since it rained.

Thurs Mar 19 (Day 5): Out at 5:30 pm. On the way checked the temp: 43 and the rain gauge: .1. A trace. The pond was dead calm, every tree on the far side perfectly reflected. Saw one circle as from a fish or insect. Several hooded mergansers were active, spending as much time under water as above. Far trees have green / gray trunks, probably various lichens. Underneath, leaves, some open woods. RWB calling back and forth, long call, then a while on single chirps, very melodious. Flock of blackbirds in the distance. 3 geese come in for a landing, wing tips down, then feet out, all 3 hit exactly at the same time. Sky clearing in the North. Tiny white spider on the leaves. Some leaves black with water, others dry. Beech tree zig zags a little with the buds. Spot on lower branch has bark peeling away, around an old wound. Quince tree twigs end looking like they've been broken off, with a leaf scar just below that and a little tiny bud that is just slightly white and fuzzy on the tip right now: will the flower emerge there? The beech is like a large ad for terminal buds. How many of the little twigs with a bud on the end will turn into branches? A bug like a black fly size hit my cheek and went its way. White pickup truck did a screeching start back towards Redhead HIll Rd, then raced by -- feels like part of the local fauna.

Fri Mar 20 (Day 6. Equinox). Went out a little after 7 am. 28 degrees and calm, sun rising through some bands of clouds, blue sky overhead with some cirrus clouds. Blackbird tribe is busy busy. Took the binoculars. Watched a few red-wings puff up and deflate as they sing. They have about 4 or 5 regular calls, the basic chirp, the melodious chirp, the classic, the classic in a slightly different key, and a couple of others. I located one and then after I stopped watching noticed about 5 take off from the same tree that I hadn't noticed. Saw a blue jay! And after following it with the binoc's across the pond saw a couple of others over there. Something called out with a beautiful two tone; I thought it was the jay but I don't find that call at my online bird call site. Maple beautiful in the morning sun. It's covered with the stems of last year's seeds, last year it masted, a huge crop. Pond smooth and dark. Across the field a tree with maybe 10 blackbirds in it. Still contemplating the humps of my section: near the end of the wall behind me, to the North, is where the big sugar maple used to be, and there's a broad hump there, but I cant believe that's all from the old roots. Nice green moss patch at the base of the lilac bush where it divides into two 6" trunks. It leans heavily towards the wall, as though its decided its best solar bet is to climb the wall and get to the Western sun, away from the beech. So its base is closer to horizontal and the moss has bedded there happily.