18 degrees and overcast at the start.

Bird Highlight: White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Botany Highlight: Sky-blue Aster

Sky-blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense)

Species list: Cooper’s hawk, turkey vulture, northern flicker, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, gray catbird, European starling, house sparrow, northern cardinal, American goldfinch. (13 species)

New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)

Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)

Woolly Bear

Bird Vetch (Vicia cracca)

Cooper’s Hawk

Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides)

Starlings

Queen-Anne’s-lace (Daucus carota)

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Miles Hearn

                                             NATURE POETRY

O thou who passest thro’ our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou,
O Summer,
Oft pitched’st here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.

– William Blake (1757–1827)