Road Trip!

I'll be offline for a day or so for a trip to the HMANA board meeting in Ithaca NY. Our meeting is going to be held at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology. So I should have some interesting pictures and will report on that until I get back.

The dreariness and rain has finally (finally!) left after a day of torrential rain and tornado watches. This morning is clear and the sky filled with stars. Dog and I scared up a roosting pheasant this morning before dawn. It exploded into the air just a few feet from us. This is a new Roundtop bird for me, bringing the number I've seen on the mountain to 130 (I think). What the pheasant was doing roosting at the foot of a tree along a woods road I'll never know. We heard its familiar warning chuckle as it flew away. It was likely a bird released for hunting season, though where it might have been released from is also a bit of a mystery. Anyway, after that, neither Dog nor I need caffeine to wake up this morning.