Monday, October 25, 2010

Day 25: Hazy Skies

Franklin Park, JP/Dorchester, 6:40am-8:30am
hazy, whitish-covered sky

Some mornings it's obvious that cloud cover will obscure dawn, but today's pre-dawn sky was hard to read. The hazy layer of clouds was just uneven enough, with some patches of almost-blue sky, that I thought the sun would pull through.

Alas, I was mistaken. As dawn approached the clouds thickened; greyish blanket became a whitish one.

Even without the drama of a fiery orb, it's satisfying to witness the start of day, the slow emergence of light and sound in the natural world.

There are some great natural acoustics at play in this corner of the park. A kind of resonating chamber is created in the hollow formed by a clean-cut golf-course slope, bounded by trees. Today's bird, one I had tried to catch last week, seems to revel in this space, his clear, glassy call bouncing off the golf course,


and then the waters of a nearby pond:


Franklin Park is full of surprises! I discovered that the tiny pond is connected to a longer, larger pond, full of ducks, geese as well as a large beautiful crane who refused to be stalked. A beautiful stone bridge traversed their connecting waterway, leading to a beckoning new trail -- to be explored!

After sunrise I met up with my friend Nate, who has been birding for two years. He let me try his binoculars, and showed me the "Wilderness" section of Franklin Park -- appropriately named and gorgeously secluded, with winding trails up to some higher rocky hilltops.

Up at the rocks, I learned that binoculars have a steep learning curve - it is nearly impossible to figure out what you're looking at before the flying target has moved on! - and learned to identify a titmouse. The mohawk helps, as did the gigantic red berry in his beak.

At home, I was feeling as hazy as the weather, and my sketch for the day reflected that. Yup, composed haze... we'll see how it sounds!

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