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Archive for June, 2010
Sunday, June 27th, 2010
 Common yellowthroat (female).
Get off my goddamned lawn.—Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino
Although I’m a hard-core road cyclist, I’m not a fan of mountain biking. Oh, I can imagine it being a thrill—careening down the fickle curves and slopes of a shady wooded trail, bounding over rocks, missing trees by inches, coming into a sharp curve too fast and wiping out into a brushy, leafy hollow, your elbow flattening an ovenbird’s nest.
“Dude! Did you see that?
In fact, I’ve got good friends who enjoy mountain biking. I can imagine it being great fun.
 Veery.
So maybe it’s just proof I’m an ornery old man when I got all bent out of shape this morning to see clear evidence that a pair of mountain bikers had ridden up the open Beech Hill trail sometime yesterday and then sped full-tilt down the lower wooded trail. A few places got torn up pretty good—although of course they’ll heal. No permanent damage. No big deal.
Except that it’s against the (posted) rules. And that I’d hate to be coming up that narrow trail when a mountain biker happened to be speeding down it. It makes me wish no one had cut away the berry brambles on either side of those trails—would’ve made it a lot less thrilling.
But besides my inner old man rant against mountain biking, today’s hike was a good one. A great one, in fact, species-wise. I listed thirty-nine bird species, total. (And that didn’t include white-throated sparrow, tufted titmouse, or rose-breasted grosbeak—all pretty common lately but missing today.) Noteworthy species on the list: eastern bluebird, black-billed cuckoo, Blackburnian warbler, and common raven. Also heard a scarlet tanager for the second straight day.
 Departure of the Stena Forth.
Coming over the summit I happened to notice, out in Penobscot Bay, the gigantic drill ship Stena Forth getting towed away from Rockland Harbor following its thruster repairs. On our return not long after, the ship was rounding Owls Head and sailing away.
Meantime, I have one confession to make: the past few days I’ve been referring to a house finch singing from the spruce grove at the summit of Beech Hill. My friend Kristen—a far more experience birder than I—saw my photo yesterday and at once recognized it as a purple finch, not a house finch. I stand corrected (and not a little embarrassed). I thought sure I could tell the difference between these birds by voice; clearly, I’m wrong. I’ve fixed the listings for these past few days.
 Savannah sparrow.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Eastern phoebe
2. Red-eyed vireo
3. Cedar waxwing
4. Common yellowthroat
5. White-breasted nuthatch
6. American robin
7. Eastern towhee
8. Chestnut-sided warbler
9. Black-capped chickadee
10. Veery
11. American crow
12. Ovenbird
13. Gray catbird
14. American goldfinch
15. Yellow warbler
16. Northern flicker
17. Scarlet tanager
18. Alder flycatcher
19. Mourning dove
20. Black-and-white warbler
21. Common raven
22. Song sparrow
23. Tree swallow
24. Purple finch
25. Savannah sparrow
26. Field sparrow
27. Herring gull
28. Hermit thrush
29. Black-billed cuckoo
30. Wood thrush
31. Chipping sparrow
32. American redstart
33. Eastern bluebird
34. Black-throated green warbler
35. Hairy woodpecker
36. Blackburnian warbler
37. Black-throated blue warbler
38. Pileated woodpecker
39. Eastern wood-pewee
Elsewhere
40. House sparrow
41. Broad-winged hawk
42. Northern parula
43. Common grackle
 Morning sky.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, northern flicker, ovenbird, pileated woodpecker, purple finch, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, tree swallow, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, wood thrush, yellow warbler Posted in Lists, Observations | No Comments »
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
 Gray catbird.
We humans are animals. Sure, some might disagree, but consider the essential definition—living things that can travel about on their own. And as a consequence, we’re governed by mysterious time. By that I mean time and motion are inextricably linked. I believe that. Therefore, I believe that if you simply get to moving, you will enter the realm of coincidence, serendipity, and timing.
 Purple finch at the summit.
For example, if I hadn’t awakened from a bad dream about pulling worms through the skin of my dog, I wouldn’t have arrived at Beech Hill at the moment I did and climbed out of my truck at exactly the time a hermit thrush was singing. I keep track of the order in which I identify birds, and today’s first was the thrush. It’s not an uncommon bird up there, true, but it’s not as vocal as, say, the red-eyed vireo or chestnut-sided warbler or even its fellow thrush, the veery. Rarely is it the first bird I list. Today it was.
Another example: if I hadn’t been standing at the summit just at the moment that purple finch began singing from among the spruce boughs, I wouldn’t have nabbed that photo. Nor would Jack and I have been standing there silently as a woman and her dog reached the summit from the open trail and, the woman being distracted and her dog being mellow, we wouldn’t have startled her as she got as close as a dozen feet without seeing us.
Nor would I have heard a pair of scarlet tanagers singing—one at the Beech Hill Road parking lot, one at the Rockville Street parking lot. Nor would I have seen two starlings, at different points on the hill, after having not seen any starlings up there all year. Or heard the lovely rare strains of that wood thrush just as we returned over the summit and into the woodland.
 Deer crossing the lower wooded trail.
Nor would we have been coming down the lower wooded trail just at the same moment a small herd of whitetails passed not far ahead of us. We were walking quietly, as always. Jack heard them first, and I slowed to check out what it was he’d detected. (Usually it’s a squirrel or chipmunk or turkey flock.) And there down the trail stepped the last deer of the bunch, nonchalantly crossing about fifty yards away. I even got a couple crappy photos.
Nor would we meet the loves of our lives or discover our passions or see those perfect sunsets—or sunrises. Because you gotta get up early if you’re gonna see a sunrise. At least at this time of year.
Sure, there’s planning. There’s learning, working, believing. But when it comes right down to it, truly I believe, it’s all a matter of timing.
Note: the road-killed robin was gone when I cycled by this afternoon. My wish is that a scavenging crow took care of it for me.
 Savannah sparrow ("Who, me?").
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Hermit thrush (voice)
2. Ovenbird (voice)
3. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
4. Common yellowthroat
5. Cedar waxwing
6. Eastern phoebe (voice)
7. Chestnut-sided warbler
8. Eastern towhee
9. American robin
10. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
11. Veery (voice)
12. Gray catbird
13. American goldfinch
14. Yellow warbler (voice)
15. Tree swallow
16. Black-capped chickadee
17. Mourning dove
18. American crow
19. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
20. European starling
21. Wood thrush (voice)
22. Field sparrow
23. Savannah sparrow
24. Scarlet tanager (voice)
25. Chipping sparrow
26. White-throated sparrow (voice)
27. Northern flicker
28. Tufted titmouse (voice)
29. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
30. American redstart
31. Hairy woodpecker
32. Purple finch
33. Red-breasted nuthatch
34. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
Elsewhere
35. House sparrow
36. Herring gull
 Common yellowthroat (male).
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern flicker, ovenbird, purple finch, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, scarlet tanager, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, wood thrush, yellow warbler Posted in Lists, Observations | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
 Gray catbird.
We hadn’t hiked more than a hundred yards along the wooded Beech Hill trail this morning when Jack and I happened upon a fellow with three off-leash dogs. Three. And they were large dogs—yellow labs or something.
“Uh-oh,” he said when he saw us. Then: “They’re friendly!”
 Feather on the trail.
The dogs charged, one of them barking. They circled Jack, whose hackles looked like the Russian forest before the Tunguska Event.
“Hi,” says I to the dogs, with a smile. Then, to the guy: “You know, they’re supposed to be on leashes.”
“All right,” says he.
“It’s posted, like, all over the place.”
“All right,” says he.
And then I couldn’t resist this little aside: “I just don’t understand why people can’t follow the rules.”
 Savannah sparrow.
I mean, it’s not a matter of civil disobedience, is it? Because I support civil disobedience. If you disagree with an unjust rule or law, disobey it peacefully in protest, so long as you don’t hurt anyone. I’m cool with that. (Hell, I’ve done that.) But this isn’t that. This has got to be simple laziness. Or ignorance. Or perhaps a failure to understand the reason for the rules: that there are nesting birds up there (especially at this time of year); that there are organic blueberries for dogs to poop on; that there are humans and other canines (on leashes) for loose dogs to charge or accost—or even attack. (I’ve heard two stories.) Anyway, it drives me crazy. Crazier even than when people don’t pick up after their dogs. I bet I’ve collected a half-dozen piles of dog shit up there that came from other people’s dogs.
(And don’t even get me started on outside cats.)
OK, enough whining. It is what it is, and it was what it was.
 Wild turkey.
And what it was today was a spectacular day. What a lovely cool sunny morning. I heard so many warblers (though no redstarts on the hill, oddly) and all three resident thrushes (wood thrush for a change) and all five resident sparrows (as usual). Curiously, only one flycatcher (eastern wood-pewee, the last bird I listed). But there were two fowl, both flushed (woodcock and wild turkey). And I heard both raven and crow.
As it happens, our hike was redeemed as we came back up over the hill and met a lady from Connecticut who summers here and had just discovered Beech Hill. She was completely accepting of Jack—and the buggy, difficult wooded trail she’d just climbed. And was so thrilled with the loveliness of the day. And was so patient with me as I rambled on about the birds I’d seen and pointed out an approaching raven, which right away hollered caw-caw-caw. (We had a good laugh over that one.)
Putting a damper on things this afternoon: a handsome road-killed robin I passed while cycling. I felt a pang of guilt for not returning to collect its carcass and move it to a decent green shady place off the busy road. But perhaps, like the pileated woodpecker last year, it’ll still be there tomorrow. I’ll do it then.
Life is so precious, after all, most exactly because we die.
 Turkey flight.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
3. Ovenbird (voice)
4. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
5. Cedar waxwing
6. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
7. Common yellowthroat
8. Common raven (voice)
9. Eastern towhee
10. American robin
11. Gray catbird
12. American goldfinch
13. Veery (voice)
14. American crow
15. Yellow warbler (voice)
16. Tree swallow
17. Song sparrow
18. Nashville warbler (voice)
19. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
20. Mourning dove
21. Savannah sparrow
22. Blue jay (voice)
23. Chipping sparrow (voice)
24. White-throated sparrow (voice)
25. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
26. American woodcock
27. Wild turkey
28. Purple finch (voice)
29. Wood thrush (voice)
30. Hermit thrush (voice)
31. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
32. Northern parula (voice)
33. Eastern wood-pewee
Elsewhere
34. House sparrow
35. American redstart
36. Herring gull
37. Rock pigeon
38. Red-winged blackbird
39. Northern cardinal
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, American woodcock, black-and-white warbler, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern parula, ovenbirdb, purple finch, red-eyed vireo, red-winged blackbird, rock pigeon, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, veery, white-throated sparrow, wild turkey, wood thrush, yellow warbler Posted in Lists, Observations | No Comments »
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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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