30Oct2007

Two and a half evening hours spent on Spruce Hill are always like a breath of fresh air, even though this time the fresh air included smoke from Paint Valley farmers burning off crop fields. It was sunny, with the temperature in the fifties and almost no wind.

At about 5:30pm, I disturbed what I think was an owl at the edge of the woods at Cuckoo Point. It was a good size bird. It flew from its perch at the edge of the woods, sailed rather low over the open field in the direction of the pond. I lost sight of it behind a rise before long but saw enough of it to see dark wrist markings, a light buff chest and long wings, slightly upturned at the tips. It was a very controlled and quiet flight…..rhythm was flap, flap, flap, flap, sail; flap, flap, flap, flap, sail. With the healthy frosts of recent nights, the leaf drop has accelerated. If one stands quietly in the woods, one can see at least one leaf quietly zigzagging its way down at any given time. The tumble is completely noiseless until the slight, crisp "tap" as the leaf comes to rest among its companions on the forest floor.

Those who were on the Plum Run hike recently can relate to my excitement when I espied a buckmoth flying at the edge of the woods just as I headed southeast towards the pond. At the pond, I flushed an American woodcock. As it was no more than 10 feet in front of me, I could clearly see the long bill and hear the twittering wingbeats as it took off from its spot in the understory and flew past. I even found the rounded-out spot where it had been sitting on the leaf-covered ground, as evidenced by the wet excrement it had dropped just prior to taking flight.

Sightings: American woodcock, buckmoth, possibly an owl(short-eared?), and New England aster