Red-eyed vireo.
Thank you, Nature, for this gorgeous morning. The Labor Day holiday. Up early enough, to the hill in angular light. Cool again but not so breezy as yesterday.
Eastern towhee.
Soon after we began our hike I heard the quay! alarm note of a red-eyed vireo. This species has been quite silent lately—as have many usually vociferous species—never mind the thousands of individual notes and phrases it utters during high summer. But its numbers remain high. You’ve just got to look instead of listen. Except when they’re alarmed and call quay!
The first little batch of chickadees brought a couple red-eyed vireos near. Also yellow-rumped warblers (as usual) and white-throated sparrows. In the distance I heard a flicker.
Approaching the summit, Jack and I came upon another gang of chickadees. Also yellow warblers, more vireos, and a ruby-throated hummingbird.
Such a lovely sky today. Such a lovely shade of blue. And such a bright sun over the water of the bay. Sails in the bay. Refreshing dry breeze coming from the west. Jays in the distance. A solitary savannah sparrow on the open trail.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
Coming back over the top, I saw—and got photos of—a small bird that looked to be a vireo or warbler. It had a dark eye-line. It had a grayish cap and could’ve passed for a red-eyed but for its very yellow sides and belly. A warbling vireo? A Philadelphia vireo? Another red-eyed? A Tennessee warbler in yellow light? It seemed to have the bill of a vireo. But even after looking at the photos later, I could not be sure.
Coming down through the lower wooded trail, the voices of more chickadees got me looking at white-breasted nuthatches and brown creepers and a female black-throated blue warbler. Also a chestnut-sided and eastern phoebe.
It might not sound like much of a hike, but each moment seemed so full and pure that I tried to elongate that moment, to make time stop. Jack and I spent nearly two and a half hours on Beech Hill this morning. True, we ran into a few humans—even a dog—and had some conversations (and sniffing). But mostly we simply stopped and looked and listened and felt the warmth of the sun or the kiss of the breeze or the slight trace of the silky web against our faces
Later, in a backyard in Camden, I enjoyed the company of friends and the appearance of waxwings, three crows, a tree swallow, and a pileated woodpecker.
Returning home, I saw some geese in a field and watched a vulture and a raven in separate expanses of far, deep, heavenly blue.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Common yellowthroat
5. Gray catbird
6. Ovenbird
7. Eastern towhee
8. Yellow-rumped warbler
9. White-throated sparrow
10. Blue jay
11. American crow (voice)
12. American goldfinch (voice)
13. Cedar waxwing
14. Northern flicker
15. Song sparrow (voice)
16. Ruby-throated hummingbird
17. Yellow warbler
18. Unknown vireo
19. Savannah sparrow
20. White-breasted nuthatch
21. Black-throated blue warbler
22. Chestnut-sided warbler
23. Brown creeper (voice)
24. Eastern phoebe
Elsewhere
25. Herring gull
26. Pileated woodpecker
27. Tree swallow
28. Turkey vulture
29. Common raven
30. Canada goose
Isle au Haut.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, blue jay, brown creeper, Canada goose, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, northern flicker, ovenbird, pileated woodpecker, red-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, turkey vulture, unknown vireo, white-breasted nuythatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
