Daily Observations

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This afternoon I took a short walk with the thought that I might see the Red-tailed Hawks that were reported last week. I first went to the bridge over Indian River in Totem Park, then walked up along the river close to the road before turning back due to lack of motivation (primarily caused by my body reminding me that I’m a little bit sick and I had not eaten lunch today).

Weather: The snow keeps on coming. We received at least another two or three inches last night and today. Despite the falling snow, it seemed that temperatures were at or above freezing throughout most of the day. When the sun did poke through the clouds this afternoon, it was easy to feel its warming effects.

Birds: Not only did I not see Red-tailed Hawks on my walk, I hardly saw any birds at all. There were three or four ravens that flew over at one point, there was a Mallard or two that I could see down toward the estuary (the tide was out a fair ways), and that was pretty much it. I didn’t see the two dippers that have been in Indian River this winter (though I didn’t spend a huge amount of time looking, so they may have been there).

I did spend some time late this afternoon watching, listening to, and recording the Song Sparrow that I first noticed in front of Fraser a couple days ago. When I was coming out of the building to go home, I heard it singing and stopped to listen for a moment. When I got home, I decided to take a chance and grabbed my recording equipment to see if I could get a recording of its song. When I got back I listened to it sing for nearly 10 minutes. I will probably write a separate entry and include a clip of song later. It seemed to be using the water dripping out of the drainpipe as an accompaniment or to mask its practicing in order to help avoid detection.

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