Journal of a Sabbatical

March 12, 2000

600 brant

Today's Bird Sightings:
Swan Point, Providence
2 red breasted mergansers
2 mute swans
26 buffleheads
1 mallard
Narragansett Terrace, East Providence
3 monk parakeets
Crescent Beach, East Providence
600 brant
1 great black back gull
Watchemoket Cove
17 mallards
6 red breasted mergansers
2 rock doves
22 starlings
1 American crow
75 mute swans
47 Canada geese
60 ring bill gulls
2 great black back gulls
9 herring gulls
24 buffleheads
2 domestic geese
4 house sparrows
2 black capped chickadees
1 American wigeon
1 great blue heron
Colt State Park
28 brant
10 horned larks
24 herring gulls
1 great black back gull

Today's Reading: Early Spring in Massachusetts: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H. G. O. Blake

These are 2 of about 600 brant at Crescent Beach in East Providence. About two thirds of the flock took off and flew low over the water toward Providence then settled down on the water again. It was magnificent. Brant don't honk like Canada geese, they sound more like dogs barking, and when you get a few hundred of them barking and flying in tight formation it definitely gets your attention.

Everywhere we went today, birds were very active either wheeling around in the sky or splashing around in the water or going nuts eating seeds in the grass. We encountered a flock of about 10 horned larks at Colt State Park who were bustling around in the grass like there was no tomorrow. I've watched horned larks go after grass seed before and scurrying is not a word I would apply to them, but these guys were scurrying around at top speed. There were probably more than 28 brant at Colt State Park too but they were all flying around in small groups of 4 or 6, no big flocks and not staying still, so I think I missed a few.

We rented The Iron Giant last night. I was expecting a feel-good story like ET. I was surprised that it was a Cold War fable with a message about guns and violence. There were so many cultural references to the 1950s that I'll have to rent it again to make sure I saw them all. It was highly evocative of my childhood. About 85% of the visual references in it would go right over the heads of any kid today. Definitely worth renting.

For the last three days, many of Thoreau's journal entries go on and on in detail about the beauty of the lichens he was seeing in Concord. He writes at length about their spring fruits as if they're huge and noticeable. Thoreau obviously had observational powers beyond those of mere mortals. I might notice the existence of lichens when I'm out for a walk, but noting their fruits? They're minuscule. So now I have this insane desire to get a pocket microscope or a really good magnifying glass and go out looking at lichens. He mentions four kinds: senecio, usnea, gnaphalium, cladonia. The botanical index to the journals unhelpfully just says they're lichens. The only one familiar to me is cladonia. I think the cladonia species he means is one whose common name is "British soldiers" because it has little red tops (like "the redcoats are coming the red coats are coming").