Christmas Bird Count

Sunrise over Liberty Mountain

As I have since the early 80s I participated in the venerable Audubon Christmas Bird Count this year. My local count (Gettysburg) was postponed until January 4. I was responsible for counting individuals and species in an around Carroll Valley, PA. The weather was cold but not frigid (high 20s) and I traveled about 4 miles on foot and 40 by car. My own count is below; in the whole count circle 79 species were counted, a slightly above average year.

	Canada Goose	350
	Gadwall	4
	American Black Duck	4
	Mallard	40
	Northern Shoveler	1
	Ring-necked Duck	10
	Ruddy Duck	4
	Black Vulture	10
	Turkey Vulture	10
	Red-tailed Hawk	1
	Mourning Dove	13
	Great Horned Owl	CW
	Belted Kingfisher	2
	Red-bellied Woodpecker	9
	Downy Woodpecker	6
	Hairy Woodpecker	1
	Pileated Woodpecker	4
	Blue Jay	5
	American Crow	7
	Common Raven	2
	Carolina Chickadee	15
	Tufted Titmouse	17
	White-breasted Nuthatch	10
	Carolina Wren	10
	Golden-crowned Kinglet	2
	Eastern Bluebird	7
	Northern Mockingbird	2
	European Starling	25
	Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
	Song Sparrow	3
	White-throated Sparrow	35
	Dark-eyed Junco	39
	Northern Cardinal	23
	House Finch	3
	American Goldfinch	5
	Total Species Reported	35
	Total Individuals Counted	681

The Year's End

Shadow in shadow
under the rhododendron
the November trout.

I came up with that while on the way to stream in November, but it applies just as well to my last fishing trip of 2013. (We'll leave the words as the are, since the spirit of a haiku is ephemeral, and besides, "November" sounds better than "December.")  This trip was on the 22nd, a bizarrely warm and misty day that set the local ski resort back. I set out to spend an afternoon on some fairly nearby Michaux streams.

The first was a small, wild trout water. The level was up, the walking good, and the brookies were ready to respond to a partridge and peacock beadhead.

I intended my next stop to be another small stream about a half an hour away. At the end of the gravel road I met a two other fisherman ready to start, something that has never happened to me outside of spring on any area mountain creek. I left the trail to them, and headed to a slightly bigger stream a few miles away. This is one I'd never fished before. I got the brown below after just a few casts, and that probably kept me fishing long after it was productive. As the afternoon drained away, mist came off the creek. A family or two walked by on the trail paralelling the creek, followed by quiet and then darkness appropriate for (almost) the longest night of the year.