9 February 2025

Archive for August, 2010

A red-tail

Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Red-tailed hawk, Weskeag Marsh, South Thomaston, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Red-tailed hawk (Weskeag Marsh).

Jack and I slept late. It’s Saturday, after all, and I’m fighting off the Lyme disease bacterium. OK, so the meds have pretty much fought it off already—but still. A man’s gotta sleep sometime.

Blue-headed vireo, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Blue-headed vireo (Beech Hill).

But hit the hill we did, just a little late. Sun was out. A little breezy. Crickets singing, and cicadas. A couple monarchs and other butterflies. Just a hint of fall ion the air, along with a few red leaves. And birds. Pretty many birds.

First to call was a hairy woodpecker, and then a few of the usual suspects, and then a black-billed cuckoo, and then we startled a partridge. As the trail opened up, where we came upon alder flycatchers yesterday, today we came upon phoebes. My friend Kristen says flycatchers migrate together, so maybe this is what’s going on.

Then, surprisingly, a field sparrow hopped over to harangue us for a while. It’s funny. You hear their musical song in spring and early summer, but you can’t get near enough for a photo. Then, once they nest and (presumably) have young to defend, they seek you out and get close. This is the second such bird I’ve photographed on these terms of his, not mine.

Field sparrow, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Field sparrow (Beech Hill).

Down toward Beech Hill Road, I heard some chickadees and so began to scan the hardwoods—chickadees often being the indicator of other, quieter species flitting about, I’ve learned. Sure enough, I spotted a parula among them, along with a chestnut-sided warbler and a couple I couldn’t identify.

Then I heard the strange, very soft warbling sound I’d heard down there before without seeing its source. But this time I did: a blue-headed vireo. I still sort of shake my head at how different the soft warble is from its typical call, but there you go.

Bobolink, Weskeag Marsh, South Thomason, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Bobolink (Weskeag Marsh).

Nothing much else on Beech Hill, but at high tide this early afternoon I met my friends Kristen and Paul at Weskeag Marsh in south Thomaston, the idea being that shorebirds would be moving through. Well, rather oddly, we saw very few shorebirds moving through. There were some least sandpipers and yellowlegs. There were snowy and great egrets. There were a pair or three red-tailed hawks. A great-blue heron. And—curiously, to me—a bobolink way out in the pannes. But no great clouds of shorebirds. A lonesome merlin flew over, even, looking similarly baffled at the dearth of wheeling flocks birds.

It was beautiful down there, though. Photogenic clouds in a summer-blue sky, and a red-tail up there soaring.

Least sandpiper, Weskeag Marsh, South Thomason, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Least sandpiper (Weskeag Marsh).

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Eastern towhee (voice)
5. Common yellowthroat
6. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
7. White-throated sparrow
8. Ruffed grouse (flushed, voice)
9. Eastern phoebe
10. Field sparrow
11. Gray catbird
12. American crow
13. Cedar waxwing
14. Song sparrow
15. Mourning dove
16. Savannah sparrow
17. Blue jay
18. American goldfinch
19. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
20. Blue-headed vireo
21. Tufted titmouse
22. Northern parula
23. Chestnut-sided warbler

Greater yellowlegs, Weskeag Marsh, South Thomason, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Greater yellowlegs (Weskeag Marsh).

Weskeag Marsh List
Arrived at 2:15 p.m., walked the pannes.

24. Northern shoveler
25. Herring gull
26. Snowy egret
27. Red-tailed hawk
28. Great egret
29. Merlin
30. Least sandpiper
31. Bobolink
32. Greater yellowlegs
33. Lesser yellowlegs
34. Great blue heron
35. Double-crested cormorant

Elsewhere

36. House sparrow

Weskeag Marsh, South Thomason, Maine, 28 August 2010.

Weskeag Marsh.

Fun

Friday, August 27th, 2010
Ruby-throated hummingbird (female), Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

Ruby-throated hummingbird (female).

To bed late. Had a fitful sleep. Rose and stumbled through the few prerequisites to the morning hike: bathroom, dress, breakfast for dog and cat, poop bags, camera battery, camera, binoculars.

Yellow-rumped warbler, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

Yellow-rumped warbler.

Sunny. Chilly, Not very breezy. Damp from last nights big rain.

No cars in the parking lot. Heard a vireo first thing. Then a chickadee. A waxwing. The usual.

But about half-way to the summit along the upper wooded trail, Jack and I emerged into an open stretch with blackberry brambles below and small hardwoods above. Chickadee voices were apparent, as well as the chip of a yellowthroat. We stopped. I took a scan: a couple chickadees, some other small birds flitting about the deciduous tree leaves. Warblers, looked like. Yes: a redstart, unquestionably—the fluttery flight, the flashes of yellow on wings and tail. Then a white-throated sparrow flew up to a bare branch not twelve feet away. I brought up my camera, but the sparrow flew.

Close behind us a catbird mewed. Then I saw a black-and-white warbler on a trunk in front of me, lit by the rising morning sun. Then, amid chip notes, what looked to be a juvenile yellow-rumped warbler. And suddenly, with a tut-tut, a juvenile robin flapped up to the crown of the tallest nearby hardwood. Then I heard a blue jay—all this happening within a matter of seconds, please note—and the sharp note of a rose-breasted grosbeak. Finally, unexpectedly, a phoebe hopped up onto an open branch directly in my view.

Pine warbler, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

Pine warbler.

I bet we stopped there for not much longer than five minutes, and yet I listed nine species from this single location.

Soon after, I heard a veery. This was getting to be fun. And coming around to the first view of Beech Nut—where I always take a photo—the near-full moon hovered just above the hut. No new species until we got up there under the spruces, where I spotted another restart, another group of yell0w-rumps, and an unfamiliar yellow warbler with streaks on its sides. I took several photos, but only one was decent. And I couldn’t review it until my return home, when I determined it was a pine.

A red-breasted nuthatch up there, too (as there often has been lately), and at least three ruby-throated hummingbirds zipping around the spruce boughs.

Savannah sparrows again today—a single family, or perhaps a migrating group. Not much else down the open trail. So we returned up over the top to the field by the little section of wooden fence, where I heard a yellowthroat very close by. I thought I might catch a nice photo, and then I heard the hum of a hummingbird’s wings. So we stopped, and I waited for the hummer. As I waited, an alder flycatcher appeared in view. Then another. Then a red-eyed vireo. Then the hummingbird, a female, dining among some flowers. The hummer then suddenly came very close, right at the edge of the trail—too close to focus, in fact. She eyed us, clearly sizing us up, and then zipped up into the twig of a tree. I grabbed a couple photos.

American redstart, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

American redstart.

Coming down the lower wooded trail—the woodsy wooded trail—I heard two wood-pewees. Then I heard (then saw) a hairy woodpecker and heard a white-breasted nuthatch.

Not much else until we neared the end of our hike, when I heard a faint tapping in the trees nearby. We stopped. I scanned. A female pileated woodpecker, not far away. We backtracked so I could get a photo. It seemed perfectly fitting: the pileated was the 27th species of the day. Three to the power of three. The 27th of August.

And then, nearly to the parking lot, I heard the voice of a flicker.

Fun, fun day.

(Later, while cycling, I saw a young bald eagle flapping out toward Penobscot Bay.)

Cedar waxwings, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

Cedar waxwings.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. Red-eyed vireo
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Cedar waxwing
4. Eastern towhee
5. Common yellowthroat
6. American crow
7. American redstart
8. White-throated sparrow
9. Gray catbird
10. Black-and-white warbler
11. Yellow-rumped warbler
12. American robin
13. Blue jay (voice)
14. Rose-breasted grosbeak
15. Eastern  phoebe
16. Veery (voice)
17. Song sparrow (voice)
18. Pine warbler
19. Red-breasted nuthatch
20. Ruby-throated hummingbird
21. Savannah sparrow
22. American goldfinch (voice)
23. Alder flycatcher
24. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
25. Hairy woodpecker
26. White-breasted nuthatch
27. Pileated woodpecker
28. Northern flicker

Elsewhere

29. Herring gull
30. Bald eagle

Pileated woodpecker, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 August 2010.

Pileated woodpecker.

Petrichor

Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Beech Nut, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 August 2010.

Beech Nut.

Recovering from a Borrelia burgdorferi infection requires a lot of sleep, apparently. This morning, I didn’t awaken until nearly 8 a.m.—far too late for my early Beech Hill hike with Jack. But it was dreary and drizzly and wet anyway, so I didn’t feel too badly about it. At least I appear to be recovering from my Borrelia burgdorferi infection.

So we didn’t head for the hill until after work, after the sun had emerged (about midday), after the air had warmed, after I’d had a chance to polish off a quick 14-mile bicycle ride. We reached the parking lot at just about 5:30 p.m. No other cars. Angular afternoon sun. A solitary crow flapping into the trees.

Inland.

Inland, from Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 August 2010.

After a few minutes, I heard a couple chickadees peeping off in the trees to our right. Then I heard a single weep! call of a towhee from up the hill to our left. In the late-afternoon stillness, the only other sounds I heard were the voice of a wood frog, the whine of a cicada, and the calls of crickets that signal the impending demise of summer. Finally, toward the summit, I heard (and saw) a family of white-throated sparrows. Then saw the bouncing white butt of a flicker. Then heard the note of a song sparrow and the “perk chickory” call of a goldfinch in flight above us.

Not until we got clear down to the Beech Hill Road parking lot could I list any other birds. A catbird mewed, and then I saw it—too dim for a photo. I also saw a small bird flit across the trail and watched it hunt for a few seconds: a female yellow warbler.

Three other couples walked the open trail while we were there: a young couple, a mother and son (apparently), a couple of young women friends. To the west, just barely blocking the sun, a large, anvil-shaped blue cloud loomed, approaching. In fact, we climbed the hill again in the shadow of this cloud.

Descending again, I heard the song of a yellowthroat. Entering the dark lower wooded trail—the looming cloud had come quickly to dim the whole world, it seemed—I heard a wood pewee. Then another. And some time later, a third.

Finally, nearing the end of our hike, the high-pitched scree of a waxwing sounded from the evening canopy.

About an hour after our return, the sky opened, and heavy summer rain came down. The satellite dish went out, and the smell of petrichor came wafting through the windows.

Two islands in shade, from Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 August 2010.

Two islands in shade.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I hiked all trails.

1. American crow
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Eastern towhee (voice)
4. White-throated sparrow
5. Northern flicker
6. Song sparrow (voice)
7. American goldfinch (voice)
8. Gray catbird
9. Yellow warbler
10. Common yellowthroat
11. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
12. Cedar waxwing (voice)

Elsewhere

13. House sparrow
14. Herring gull

Storm coming, from Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 August 2010.

Storm coming.

 
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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