It was supposed to rain buckets today. So much so that the front page of yesterday's Eagle Tribune featured a story about how people who live next to the Merrimack River, having been traumatized by the last two hundred year floods, are nervous. So much so that my little Weather Channel storm alert desktop widget was flashing red with a "Spring Storm Alert". So much so that Unit 3 left me a voice mail message basically saying "don't come". This was all fine with me since I have been feeling lousy for days and thought sleeping in might help. At 7:27 AM, I look out the window, see that is indeed raining and proceed to go back to sleep.
I must have needed the sleep. Just before noon I woke up, looked out the window and saw blue sky. Blue sky!?!? Did I sleep all day and miss Saturday altogether? The radio continues to tell me we are having showers all day today and part of tomorrow. It's still Saturday. The wind is out of the southwest. Migrants should be on the move. I didn't miss a day, just missing the migrants I guess.
I made a pot of coffee (Plum Island Coffee Roasters French Roast Colombian), which I am drinking out of my huge Lowell mug. I still feel weird. All this week the parking lot behind my unit has been alive with birds. Robins, red-winged blackbirds, house sparrows, starlings, blue jays, crows, and the local pigeon flock. Today there is not a single bird in my illegal maple tree nor in the Russian Parking Space Blocker's semi-illegal birch tree. Last year robins built and abandoned a nest in the maple. This year, until today, they've been hanging around both trees giving off nesting vibes, but not bringing any nesting materials. The juncos went from flocking in the shrubs in the front of the condo to chasing each other in pairs between the illegal maple and the birch to nowhere to be seen. That at least is right on schedule. They should be well north of this condo by now. And last, but not least, I have not yet seen my personal backyard turkey vulture yet this season. I have seen kettles of TVs in Lowell, Bedford, and Newburyport, but my personal North Andover one is a no show. Go figure.
I check the massbird.org archive for today, expecting tons of reports from this morning. The Merrimack Valley is quiet except for a little gull in Newburyport Harbor. Alas, I have no time to go check it out. I'm so far behind in my chores that I will be lucky to ever be done, let alone done by the time I have to go pick up Nancy at the bus station and go visit her Mom.
Hmm, last year's birding blogging came to an abrupt end here because of Nancy's Dad and now is getting off to a slow start because of her Mom. It's overwhelmingly sad to watch how quickly Nancy's Mom has declined since Nancy's Dad died in December.
As I keep telling Nancy, the reason I am not birding and am tired and possibly sick at this point, has less to do with her parents than it does with the combination of that with how unbelievably bored and stressed out I am at Gray Cubicle World. Would that I were still retired, living off the Cosmodemonic Telecom stock and following my bliss. At least I discovered my bliss is a pale sand-colored shorebird. Maybe I can follow it next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment