7 November 2026

Archive for the ‘Poem’ Category

A Tone-Deaf Chickadee

Sunday, February 26th, 2017
Thrushes three, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 26 February 2017.

Thrushes three.

There’s a chickadee
At Beech Hill
Whose  two-note spring song

American Robin, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 26 February 2017.

American Robin.

Is defective,
Monotonous.
The bird sings both notes

On the same pitch.
I feel sorry
For the tone-deaf chickadee.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:45 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. American Crow*
2. Black-capped Chickadee**
3. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
4. American Robin*
5. Hairy Woodpecker
6. Blue Jay (v)
7. Eastern Bluebird
8. Common Raven
9. White-breasted Nuthatch
10. Tufted Titmouse (v)
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler
12. Herring Gull*

 

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 

Roadside Sharpie

Saturday, February 25th, 2017
Sharp-shinned Hawk (juvie), near Clam Cove, Rockport, Maine, 25 February 2017.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (juvie).

Thick morning fog and balmy temps
Pushed and pulled us up the slope
Leaving robins, crows, and black-caps
To keep track of our muddy tramp.

Black-capped Chickadee, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 25 February 2017.

Black-capped Chickadee.

Driving home I saw a little sharpie
Perched bolt upright on a fat tightrope
Of cable stretched between power poles—
A hawk scanning the fog for prey.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:45 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
2. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. American Robin
5. American Crow* (v)
6. Tufted Titmouse (v)
7. Northern Cardinal (v)
8. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)

Elsewhere

9. Sharp-shinned Hawk
10. Canada Goose
11. Mallard
12. Herring Gull

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 

Daylight

Saturday, February 18th, 2017
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Rockport, Maine, 18 February 2017.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

The hill was chill this morning.
Crows chased a Red-tailed Hawk.
Afterward, the sun emerged,
And errands took me up Route 1
To where I spied a feeding station,
Where dined a sapsucker.
Daylight is notably longer now.

Red-tailed Hawk, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 18 February 2017.

Red-tailed Hawk.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 9 a.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. American Robin*
2. Dark-eyed Junco
3. American Crow*
4. Tufted Titmouse* (v)
5. Blue Jay
6. Northern Flicker
7. Herring Gull*
8. Red-tailed Hawk
9. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
10. Black-capped Chickadee*
11. Downy Woodpecker**

Elsewhere

12. Northern Cardinal
13. Rock Pigeon
14. Mallard
15. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
16. European Starling

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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