Could It Be a Goldfinch?

March 12, 2010.  Friday.

Situation:   Work tonight, take Mway out about 1:45.  Wear the denim jacket again today – the season for the snow suit may have passed.

State of the Path:  As soon as I step outside I see a flock of starlings swoop through the air then land on the top branches of our willow by the corn crib.   The air is filled with their eerie chattering and chirping, and soon I see a hundred or more starlings on the top branches of the trees in the side hedgerow and in the old orchard, in about a half dozen trees in all.  The air is misty today, with a fine drizzle.  In the old orchard, more garlic grass seems to have come up, and the clumps are larger.  Along the back hedgerow I see several colored birds flying low along the trees – I can’t make out what they are, but as I keep on looking, I finally see a single yellow bird dart into Hutchinson’s field – could it be a goldfinch?  The mud in the path is widening its expanse; more and more I have to walk off to the side into the weeds.  I note the pond between the ridge of the skating pond and the ridge around bug land.  It is very soggy along bug land and on the other side of the ridge.  Try as I do to step to the side of the path, I feel water seeping into my worthless boots.

State of the Creek:  The water is higher today.  It has lost its rusty brown color and is now a soupy green.

The Fetch:  With all the snow gone in the clearing, a couple days ago I spotted again the stick with the weird fungus on it.  The fungus, though, is crumbling off.   On the first toss today, a rabbit runs out of a bush and into the lane behind the summer house as Mway is sprinting after her stick.  Focused as she is on the stick, Mway misses seeing the rabbit.  I lose count how many times she fetches the stick today, sliding on soggy ground, plowing through weeds, dragging the weeds against her collar back with her, doing whatever is necessary to fetch the stick as fast as she can and ultimately carry it back to the house.  As I sit here in the office, a lady bug walks across the glass of the window, as a number of them have been doing the last week or so.

ADDENDUM!!:  Tonight, after I come home from work, Moi says she’s heard spring peepers tonight, the first night this year.  I step outside to listen for them.  At first I don’t hear anything – probably I have been deafened a little by all the noise at work – but when I step further out into yard, I do hear them.