Thanksgiving Bird Count

At 9:25 A.M. I gradually determined there were thirteen ducks, one male and twelve female, American Golden Eye. Pale front with white on the wing, brown female ducks. Fifteen minutes later there was one partly immature seagull on a piling. At that point I ate a scone. Two more seagulls noticed this and circled around just a little. There was a seal floating in the near distance. Behind the boathouse about four crows flew above the dark green line of tree tops. One large bird was on one branch. At 9:45 A.M. the "Klahowya" passed on its way back to the ferry dock. Through binoculars, the one large bird was an American Bald Eagle.

One immature seagull was making a treble immature crowing cry. At 9:50 the rain let up. The Kalhowya neared the dock. A bird that looked like a crow through binoculars tumbled and turned all around in the air over and over. The tips of the wing feathers kept flourishing.

At 9:55 the bell under the small bell roof in the platform I sat on rang three times. I had known this would happen. I heron flew above and outside my circle. An immature seagull with a leaf landed on the railing of the pier. This seagull might have been inside my circle.

At 10 there is still a seal in the water, still an eagle on the branch. A crows flies directly overhead, inside my circle. Seagulls fly straight over low above the water toward the ferry dock area. The wheet wheet seagull sound might be on the bell roof. At 10:20 a brown duck swims out from under the pier and flaps its wings, to show from behind the whole white patches on the wings. I cormorant flies low along the water, it resembles two smaller birds. It lands. I am almost sure it is a cormorant, I cannot find it in the binoculars.

In the afternoon at 3:12 p.m. on a second try at the park pond nearby there are thirteen male mallards, seven female mallards, and seven or eight crows. All day there was steady rain with some times when it let up.

At 4:02 a fresh wind blew around the yellow leaves on a small tree near the other side of the pond.