BIRD SIT AT HARRINGTON ACCESS

In a departure from our usual Sunday Sit Spot at William Pond and went just a little bit down river from that spot to Harrington Access to take part in a bird sit.

We biked up river to Harrington Access in the super quiet of an early Sunday morning that was "spring ahead" day to boot. We wound through town, the med center and onto the bike trail seeing almost no traffic or people other than a few other runners and bikers on the trail. Two kitted out road bikers flew past us and referred to Kevin as "baller" for driving Kiddo around in the cargo bike.

It was delightful to arrive to a circle of folks ready to check out birds, drink our hot tea (or coffee), munch on our breakfasts and have a slow start to the program. Overall it was a cooler and overcast day than the past few and we were bundled up.

As the leader shared, a kite hovered over the group. I see why it gets its name; it's hovering action did look like a toy kite!

After our sit we came back together as a group and shared our maps and pieced together the stories we collected. Almost everyone had heard many hawk calls of a hawk nesting to the east of all of us in some tall cottonwoods. I heard kinglets & saw a tiny Nuttal's Woodpecker. I sat near a dirt road / path that had some deer tracks in it.

The girls sitting nearest to me talked about a crested, dark bird. I perked up because exactly a month ago, at Pond Park, I had seen a dark, crested bird and flipped through Sibley's but didn't figure out who it was. Today I learned it was a Phainopepla! New bird learned today!

At home, the day before, we harvested all the lemons still on the tree (buckets!) to juice for the freezer, kiddo lovingly planted more peas, poppies are blooming and I'm now adorning my work-from-home space with calendula, bay, mugwort, rosemary, oregano bouquets.