Yard work and deer
After a brief stop in at work to make up a little lost time I set about working on the landscape timbers. The first problem was to open the bundle, packed with two bands of steel strapping. I put on safety goggles, put a brick on the bands on either side of where I wanted to saw, and got to work with a hacksaw. The first strap probably wouldn't have been a problem, but the second was under tension and sprung apart hard when I sawed through it. I was glad I had thought ahead and set the bricks down.I moved about four of the 75-pound timbers myself with a wheelbarrow, and then Arlene came out and helped with the last ten. I don't know whether doing income tax was a break from the landscaping work or vice versa. Either way, by now there are three sections of timber, accounting for about two and a half of the fourteen pieces, set around sections of garden.
By late afternoon we were ready to call it quits and go for a walk. We walked in Cutler Park, out the path along the river past the end of the main loop, but the birds weren't anywhere to be seen. There were a couple of hawks soaring over the river in the distance, too far away to identify with binoculars, and a couple of ducks (also unidentified) in the river. We saw chickadees, a nuthatch, robins, redwings, and a phoebe in the woods, nothing to write home about. Then I looked down the hillside and saw what I first thought was a large German Shepherd -- strange, because most people who walk dogs in Cutler Park stick to the main loop, and we hadn't seen any other people in that area. No! It was a deer -- and there was another next to it. Arlene got to see them before they bounded away, white tails doing the distraction thing. That made the extra walking worth while, and I was pleased that I had been the one to spot them. Most of the time Arlene sees things first and has to point them out to me, but the last few times we've been out I've felt I'm pulling my own weight in spotting birds.
On the way back, just before we got back to the main loop, Arlene saw three more deer. These would have been hard to miss; they were crossing the walking trail. We got a good look at them as they turned to watch us pass.
We stopped in Nahanton Park to look for woodcock, as it was beginning to get dark and we were right there anyway. We heard one very close by and walked a little way towards the sound. It was quiet for a while and then let out with a zzzeep so loud that we started looking seriously for it. We pointed our binoculars at a little shadow running through the grass and got about the best look we've ever had at a woodcock on the ground. It was raising its bill with every zzzeep. Pretty soon it took off. We lost sight of it until it had almost landed. It landed much farther from us than it had been before. We left, pleased with the good look we had had of it.
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