Journal of a Sabbatical

April 26, 1999

since then

April 23
Newburyport boat ramp

73 greater yellowlegs
1000+ oldsquaws
some number of common goldeneyes

Plum Island

33 green-winged teal
2 killdeer
2 greater yellowlegs
10 gadwall
2 blue-winged teal
10 black ducks
1 yellow rumped warbler
3 northern mockingbirds
8 American robins
7 redwing blackbirds
1 northern harrier
2 great egrets
1 snowy egret
2 mallards
8 Canada geese
1 turtle

Salisbury Beach

133 brant
2 doublecrested cormorants
13 seals

April 25
Blithewold

6 brant
2 doublecrested cormorants
1 wood frog

Thursday April 22:

The mockingbird sang all night. He sang all day today. He hasn't stopped yet. He moves from the light pole directly outside my window to the one across the parking lot and back again but the song never stops.

The Red Sox have stopped hitting. So much for their fabulous start.

After yet another shower, I still have little dots of red gel pen on my arm. So, like, this comes off the skin of 5th graders with ease and sticks to old maid aunts? They should put a warning label on it: "Not to be used by children over 12 years of age" or provide solvent.

Friday April 23:

OK. Birding is an addiction. I faithfully promised myself last night that I would call all the foundations on my list and only after I had completed that would I go look for birds. So what did I do? I got up, showered, dressed, got in the car, drove to the Newburyport boat ramp before I even had breakfast or coffee. There were a thousand or so old squaws there splashing and squawking and generally being extremely noticeable. Two birders from the southwest corner of New Hampshire had come to see coastal birds but had forgotten there scope. They asked me if I could make out what the huge flock of little black dots was... I lent them the scope for awhile so they could get a good look at the old squaws. Imagine driving all that way and forgetting the scope!

Saturday April 24:

My right ankle, a.k.a. the good one, is swollen and painful but I don't dare skip out on walking with Joan-east and Priscilla. I've missed several walks because my voice mail was messed up for two weeks so I got all the messages from April 1 to 15 on April 15. My walking buddies thought I was out of town or dead. They were about to come over and check my house. Of course, there were plenty of times when I was actually here to answer the phone and they didn't call that many times, so I'm not sure what convinced them I was dead. Anyway, I'm clearly not. Just mad at Bell Atlantic.

So anyway, I walked with Joan-east and Priscilla for just over half an hour even though my ankle hurt like hell. I am such an idiot.

I showered again after the walk and the gel pen finally came off.

Nancy and I went out to dinner at Siam Square in their new location and then watched Jailhouse Rock on tv. Ah, the thin Elvis...

Sunday April 25:

The reason people put up with the New England winter is the New England spring. Today is a picture perfect spring day. Warm, sunny, and colorful. Forsythia is in peak bloom everywhere: a riot of yellow sprawling across the landscape all the way down the coast.

Nancy and I spent the entire afternoon hanging around at Blithewold taking in the blooming of 50,000 daffodils along with grape hyacinths, scilla, yellow things I don't remember the name of, cherry trees, sun, the songs of wood frogs and all kinds of birds, brant on the bay, cormorants on the piers... Time stopped and there was nothing but spring all around.