Day 46: Optical Illusions

Franklin Park, Dorchester, MA, 6:20am-7:30am
shifting clouds, cool

Pretty overcast this morning: looked like a no-show for the sun.

Just in case, I headed up Scarborough Hill, and was pleasantly surprised to see the tiniest hints of dawn-lit pink peeping through some breaks.

It was ultimately a sun-less but gorgeously stratified dawn. The cloud cover broke up to reveal an array of colors. Splatters of bright white clouds held static against high blue sky, while hazy grey clouds raced over fluffier pink-lit ones. The translucence of the grey clouds made them appear multi-colored as they passed in front of the pinks, and on closer examination it turned out the pink fluffs were moving too, just not as fast.

Meanwhile, I'm checking out the noisy trees behind me, and I keep mistaking a twirling, falling leaf for a bird. Lots of tricks to the eye today!

Later I decide to run the whole perimeter of this golf-course area of the park. Halfway around, the Bird of the Day pops out at me from the side of the path, perched visibly atop a dead tree trunk. He's pointy-beaked and perky-tailed, maybe some kind of nuthatch?

I'm impressed with the variety of rhythms he gets out of a single pitch, uttered once or twice
(note car honk interjection):


My sketch today is based on the illusion of stationary versus moving clouds from the sunrise.