Day 9 - There I was....at my sit spot. It was early and I was enjoying the symphony of the dawn chorus unfolding before me. The robins and cardinals seemed to be switching off taking their leads and solos. It was dark, so I could not see much, so I saw it as an opportunity to just close my eyes and listen for a while. It seemed like my eyes were closed for only a few moments, when I felt compelled to open them. I used my "owl eyes," scanned around a bit and did not see anything; but I just had that feeling that I was being watched. I sat there in the very early morning light, attentive that something was "out there." While scanning I looked over to my right and saw a leaf that turned into a robin and back into a leaf again, as I strained my eyes to look at it. I had brought a pair of binoculars(a recent early birthday gift from my father-in-law...thank you Tom!) and decided I would take a look at that leaf with my binos. Even with my binos trained on this object, there just was not enough light to be certain. On minute my mind was" made up" that it was a robin and the next that it was a brown leaf. This went on for about 10 minutes until the light had come up enough to aid in my identification process and it was in fact.....a robin. Once I realized it was a robin, I was happy to focus my attention on just observing it for a while. About 2 minutes after its identity was confirmed, it sprung out of its resting position to "spar" with another male robin just behind a tree in my view. The interesting thing was that these 2 robins clashed just out of my view behind the tree and that was the last I saw of them....it was almost as if they exploded into each other and just disappeared. I am beginning to believe that robins have the ability appear and disappear at will...at least at my secret spot they do.
Also, I don't know what it was about this AM, but it was definitely the start of the "territoriality season" in my neighborhood. Shortly after I arrived home, I saw another 2 male robins clashing and making all sorts of noise in the neighbor's yard....and throughout the day I witnessed several more male robin acts of aggressiveness. I look forward to seeing how long this will go on.
Day 10 - This AM started out normal enough, except for the fact that I "alarmed" a dog on my way to my sit spot. I was doing my best to "fox walk" on the mecadem trail on the way down the hill to my spot, when I stepped on an acorn remnant that cracked loud enough to get the big dog(in a yard adjacent to the park) barking. I have to say that it was a bit nerve-racking, since that dog sounded BIG and I wasn't totally certain that it was fenced in. All of a sudden I started getting crazed dog images in my head, where some big beast would come charging out of the darkness. I picked up my pace and decided that moving out of the area was the best strategy (As I write this, my window is open and I have heard about 3 bouts of robin aggression in the last 10 minutes, so the battles go on....but I digress.) I got into my spot quickly, following the shadows of the trees as I normally do, to try to minimize the presence of my arrival. I got into a comfortable position, and for some reason was able to quiet my mind fairly quickly. I enjoyed listening to the birds as dawn was approaching. I heard robins singing to my west and south, as well a host of the usual suspects(chickadees, cardinals and some new birds I have yet to identify.) I begin to focus on a robin alarming behind me, but I could not locate the bird up in the tree. I was curious to see if it was one of the "regulars" or just a "transient" robin passing through....no luck there. When my eyes returned to my normal scanning area...a small cottontail rabbit came hopped into my view from the east. I was SO EXCITED, since he was only about 30 feet away and right in front of me. I remained as still as possible, anticipating having some time to just observe this rabbit and its morning routine. It was acting very normally foraging around, which made me feel good that it was not too concerned with my presence....when all of a sudden it stopped and looked right at me. At this point, I thought I was "made" and that the show would be over; but that rabbit, began hopping toward me. It would hop a little, then stop and turn toward me...then hopped at me. My heart started beating faster as this rabbit was traveling in such a manner that I actually thought to myself, "What do I do if this thing hops into my lap?" The rabbit got closer and closer until it was within 10 feet of me....this was by far the closest I had ever been to a rabbit that was just going about its business and acting normally. Finally the rabbit veered off to the east and entered the woodline
With Thankfulness and Appreciation...Greg (a.k.a the Accidental Naturalist)
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