My walks have been quite chilly lately with temperatures around freezing.  Several days ago there was a heavy frost with some fall of ice pellets, and as often happens here after such weather, it became clear and cold with the frost and ice remaining even though it has been sunny.  The frozen gravel cracks under my feet like popcorn and the frozen leaves sound like brittle cellophane.  The little valley that I walk through to the beach is almost constantly shaded and acts as a conduit for the cold air as it flows down it to the Sound.  The water of the Sound is in the lower forties and as the air rises over the warmer water it draws the air down the little valley.  So when I walk down the road to the water, I don’t feel the cold so much, but when I walk back, I am walking against the cold flow of air and my ears and chin get very cold.

I like to look closely at the hoarfrost that covers the leaves, admiring the intricate patterns of the ice crystals.  Sometimes during particularly heavy frosts, the crystals of ice pushes the soil up into little mounds and later after it melts the soil remains soft and springy.  The little brook seems unaffected by the cold, splashing and gurgling along, talking to me and keeping me company as I walk down the shaded road to the beach.

Yesterday as I stood on the little bluff overlooking the water, I saw a sea lion, methodically swimming its way south, rising and falling, its breath throwing little sprays of water into the air.  The birds are all my old friends: Common Mergansers, Horned Grebes, Double Crested Cormorants, a lone Bald Eagle, anonymous gulls, Cassin’s Auklet, Winter Wrens, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Stellar Jays, Juncos, Chestnut sided Chickadees, Varied Thrushes (not calling yet), and numerous Song Sparrows whose hormones seemed to have been stirred by the lengthening days and who sing from every suitable vantage point.  I also saw two different unidentified ducks.  One looked just like a Bufflehead, but seemed much larger than these petite little ducks with a larger amount of white on the head.  Another looked very familiar to me and had a reddish head.  Winter plumage can be confusing sometimes!

     Once again I am reading a novel by Tim Powers.  A new Border’s Book Store opened up nearby, and I found two of his novels that I haven’t read before: The Drawing of the Dark and Three Days to Never.  A few months ago, I talked about reading another of his recent books, Declare, and stating that I hated to finish the book because I was enjoying it too much.  That’s the way I feel about The Drawing of the Dark.   I limit myself to a few pages a day so I won’t tear through it in one great gulp.  I haven’t yet read a book by Powers that I didn’t like.   It doesn’t seem quite right to say that he writes about the supernatural or the fantastical, which he does, but it’s more than that.  He often combines the fantastic with history, combining it at times into a kind of mystery story, all done with a remarkable feel for the peculiar atmosphere and ambiance which gives all his books their appeal.

     On my walk to the beach yesterday, I saw three Bald Eagles.  Today I heard an immature Bald Eagle calling, as I also did yesterday, in one stretch of forest on the way to the beach.  For at least the past 6 years I have heard immature eagles calling in this same stretch of woods, and assume that the eagles nest in that area.  The woods is now surrounded by residential area, and I fear for its safety.

     I saw a flock of 44 Common Mergansers swimming along the margins of the Sound also.  The males are always less numerous in such flocks and look totally different from the females.  There were only ten males in this flock.

If we decide

to part

Let us not

say goodbye,

but when

holding hands

walking down a

deserted beach,

I will bend over

to pick up a

shell

and when I turn

to show you…

you’ll be

gone.

     Tonight I shall go to bed about 5 am and as to when I arise, who can say? No later than ten, more like 9 am, I would guess.  My sleep patterns have been disrupted for years I think, and all this work doesn’t help.   Three nights ago I decided to take some melatonin before going to bed.  So far since beginning to take it, I have slept much sounder and deeper.  Once before when I tried it, I had vivid dreams and that seems to be the case now.  My dreams are longer and much more involved.   I have read that .5 mg taken before bed is about all  one needs, and so I think that I will cut the 3 mg. tablets that I have in two and see how that works. 

     A while back on one of my walks to the beach, I saw a flock of about 18 Common Mergansers swimming in Puget Sound near the bank.  For some reason the female seems much more common, and I only occasionally see the male.  Almost all of these birds were swimming along with their heads stuck just below the water up to the eyes, presumably looking for fish.  They are skittish birds and I stood very still to avoid spooking them.  They swam swiftly by heading north along the bank and were soon lost to sight.  Just recently I had seen this behavior for the first time when I saw the Loon, and now there were all these birds doing the same thing!