I’ve been quiet lately. The old year is perhaps better left behind in many ways, though I hope to produce a small missive for the masses before this year, too disappears into the mist.
Today, the third day of the year 2011, I have a puzzle of a birding kind — a small, yellow-drab wren-like bird with a thin beak that has a bright reddish-orange spot on the top of its head. It may be a female. I haven’t managed to take a picture of it, but it likes to visit the medlar tree outside the living room window.
I think it’s a type of warbler. It is clearly not a goldfinch – the beak is not substantial enough.
I can’t find a picture of it online, either, though the Orange-crowned Warbler at birdweb looks closest and the song seems familiar. It would be highly out of season, if it is.
However, I have also seen robins in the last couple of days, also out of season for our area. It has been very chilly this past week, temps in the teens and 20s in Fahrenheit and no precipitation. I wonder if there is a false spring on the way? We have been promised a long, cold — and snowy — winter, but aside from the several days of snow pre-Thanksgiving there hasn’t been anything at this elevation.
Today the children are back at school, I leave in a few minutes to volunteer in a friend’s classroom. Tomorrow, I return to the drudgery. I will keep volunteering on Mondays with my friend to help me remain optimistic and focused. At this point, the program I chose is simply something to be “got through” rather than a joyful experience; there is no reason to expect it to change.