Spring 5: Cross-Hatched

6:45am-7:00am, Bussey Brook Meadow, Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, MA
lightly snowing!

I caught a nice visual moment on the Meadow path today: scatterings of tiny, delicate lines of snow cross-hatching the dirt.

The snow hadn't been falling for very long, and I suppose the ground was warm enough to melt and disperse much of it. What remained was the fragile dust of snow lining the surfaces of miniscule twigs and pebbles, raised just above the dirt-level of the path. They were wondrously varied.

We (I'll speak for all of the Northeast now!) are wintered-out, and would prefer that spring asserted itself at this point. However, it is fun to see that, three months into my fifth New England winter, there are still completely new snow-scenes to witness!

Meanwhile, it's business as usual for the Meadow birds: cardinals, song sparrows, robins, blackbirds.

I get a kick out of the Blackbird Phenomenon, which has happened a couple times now: I hear a couple of notes sticking out of a general bird texture, and think it's a new bird. Eventually I realize it's a blackbird who follows these pitches with buzzing, but the buzzing gets swallowed into the background while the melodic notes stick out. I love auricular illusions!

Here's my version first, so you can hear the notes I'm talking about:


Now, the Meadow/marsh soundscape with the original Blackbird of the Day:


Here, a more sparse moment where you can hear the buzzy-screechy trill that follows each of the melodic bits (and is the completion of the call):