27Mar2008

March 27th was an overcast day with a light breeze, temps in the low forties, a great day for birdwatching. There is a brown thrasher and an eastern towhee that frequent the underbrush near the farm pond; they call quite frequently as one walks up the footpath. Trout lily leaves line the path, as do trilliums in bud. Several skeins of ducks and one of Canada geese threaded their way across the gray skies above the vernal pool.

We watched a pair of yellow bellied sapsuckers work a large tree at the western edge of the field. They would fly to their pre-drilled holes, sip, then withdraw their bills to let the hole refill with sap, inserting their bills repeatedly, slowly and silently drinking from their sugary wells.

Wildlife sightings: Brown thrasher, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, eastern towhee, northern flicker, Canada goose, yellow-bellied sapsucker.