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Archive for May, 2011
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
 Savannah sparrow. A gray, rainy morning kept me in bed for an extra hour. But you can’t keep the resident house finch down, nor the phoebes nesting above my back window. Nor the neighborhood crows. Or the pair of nesting cardinals.
 Birch bark. However, Nature can keep me inside where it’s warm and dry—so long as I have big windows to look through. I cranked up the heater and worked all morning and much of the afternoon. Not until after 4 p.m. did Jack and I venture out in it. By that time, a mere mist was descending onto a soggy landscape, and the world had succumbed to fog.
In town, small bunches of starlings were bouncing around the roadsides. Gulls, as usual. I didn’t see any pigeons.
We took care of business and finally ended up at the wooded Beech Hill trail. A dense fog had by then descended. I didn’t have high expectations. And in fact I neither saw nor heard a single bird until we’d begun ascending the steeper part of the upper trail, when I caught wind of the bright, rising note of an eastern towhee. A little while later, I heard—simultaneously—the calls of a robin and a chickadee.
We’d gotten as far as the summit before I heard a herring gull. A couple of ’em. Then, perched on a rock wall at foggy Beech Nut, I barely made out the shape of a small solitary bird that I assumed was one of the phoebe pair. It flitted away as we got near. We circled the hut, and coming around the back side I saw it again perched on the porch wall. It flitted down to the grass. Not a phoebe—a sparrow. A savannah sparrow. I didn’t expect a bird photo today, but somehow I got one.
Then I heard song sparrows singing, two of them. Six species. Not long after, while descending the lower wooded trail, I heard a crow. (Seven.) In the bottomlands, the fog seemed to be muffling any sound. But I finally heard something, and we stopped. A singing hermit thrush. And I got to thinking that maybe if the mallards were swimming in the vernal pool, and I somehow found another bird, that would make ten—but there were no mallards at the pool.
 Droplets. Surprisingly, as we entered the last stretch of sugarbush before the parking lot, I heard the sharp call of a flicker. (Nine.) And shortly after, the rapid chatter of a nuthatch.
Ten birds after all.
Despite the gray and mist, today nonetheless struck me as powerfully springlike. The trees are budding, and the empty, bare view of only a week ago now seemed less clean, messier, more alive. Rain is also forecast for tomorrow, but I remain immensely excited about the next few days.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:15 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Eastern towhee (voice)
2. American robin (voice)
3. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
4. Herring gull (voice)
5. Savannah sparrow
6. Song sparrow (voice)
7. American crow (voice)
8. Hermit thrush (voice)
9. Northern flicker (voice)
10. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Elsewhere
11. House finch
12. Eastern phoebe
13. House sparrow
14. European starling
15. Northern cardinal
 Strawberry.
Tags: American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, northern cardinal, northern flicker, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch
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Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
 American kestrel. Because I expected rain, I didn’t hop out of bed at 6 or 6:30. I slept in. That is, until a beam of sunlight caught my sleepy attention. What? Jumped up, stumbled about, and soon Jack and I were headed for Beech Hill.
 Trout lilies. Nice to hear an ovenbird first thing. The usual other species—goldfinch, the kiosk phoebe, towhee, chickadee, crow, gull. Also nice to see little buds on the trees: walnut-sized greenery on the maple twigs, peanut-sized on the oaks’. Trout lilies have barely begun blooming. Exciting to see Nature on the brink of busting loose.
Gulls in the periphery. The voices of black-and-white warblers, flickers and robins and white-throats. Up toward the summit, I heard (and saw) yellowthroats. A turkey vulture soared past.
Having started late, we didn’t have a load of time, so I simply stopped and listened at Beech Nut for a minute. Heard savannah sparrows and field sparrows from down the open slopes. A kestrel made an appearance, hovered for a minute, moved on. Before we started back down, I heard—then saw—a pair of Canada geese flying frantically off toward the bay. In the first little wooded stretch, I heard the gobble of a turkey near where I saw a hen yesterday. I wondered if it might’ve actually been a hunter’s call, but when I also heard a couple dueling flickers crying out in the same area (one with an odd descending call), I figured it must’ve been the real thing.
 Broad-winged hawk. We headed back down the upper trail, and at the first opening in the trees, a shadow passed over. I looked up. Not thirty feet above us was a soaring hawk. A broad-wing. A pair of broad-wings, in fact. I raised my camera right away, but they were too close to get a good fix on. Then they circled higher, and I managed a couple photos. And one of them called—a high-pitched whistled scree!
At the bottom, I heard a cardinal’s sharp chip note. Decided to walk a few steps to the vernal pool to see if the mallards were there. Sure enough, at least one of them was.
Finally, just before we reached the parking lot, I heard the rapid call of a white-breasted nuthatch.
Elsewhere today, spotted a couple mourning doves on utility lines. Heard house sparrows in town, and saw a couple starlings. And at one point on North Main Street, Rockland, I caught sight of an osprey flying low toward the east with a fish in its talons. That’s an image I’d like to capture someday. (Fish hawks are so perfectly built to do exactly what they do.)
At home this evening, I confirmed that both the nuthatches and phoebes still keep nests within a few feet of my back deck.
Tonight, the air is misty and making for a diffuse glow from the streetlights. I hear foghorns.
Addendum: woodcock calling from across the road at 10 p.m.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:15 a.m., I hiked the upper wooded trail.
1. Ovenbird (voice)
2. American goldfinch
3. Eastern phoebe
4. Eastern towhee
5. Black-capped chickadee
6. American crow
7. Herring gull
8. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
9. Northern flicker (voice)
10. American robin (voice)
11. White-throated sparrow (voice)
12. Yellow-rumped warbler
15. American kestrel
14. Song sparrow
15. Common yellowthroat
16. Turkey vulture
17. Field sparrow (voice)
18. Tree swallow (voice)
19. Savannah sparrow (voice)
20. Canada goose
21. Wild turkey (voice)
22. Broad-winged hawk
23. Northern cardinal (voice)
24. Mallard
25. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Elsewhere
26. House finch
27. Mourning dove
28. House sparrow
29. European starling
30. Osprey
31. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American kestrel, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, broad-winged hawk, Canada goose, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mallard, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, osprey, ovenbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, turkey vulture, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, wild turkey, yellow-rumped warbler
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Monday, May 2nd, 2011
 Morning sky. Got up and out before 7. A sunny morning, as promised. A bit cool, not much wind. The phoebes were flitting about out back, and the house finch was singing out front.
Odd, but by the time we got to Beech Hill—not much more than a five minute drive—a wide stripe of clouds had moved across the sun. I’d had hopes of some nice photos, but the prospects on a cloudy morning aren’t great. Still, an ovenbird greeted Jack and me with its loud call of teacher teacher teacher! And the phoebe at the trailhead flitted away at our approach.
 Eastern towhee. Coming up the trail, I heard the voices of the familiar resident birds: flicker, towhee, crow, chickadee, gull. White-throated sparrows were still about, although not quite in the numbers of yesterday and the day before. Heard the calls of a goldfinch and a purple finch not minutes apart.
Warblers today were black-and-white, yellow-rumped, yellowthroat, and—on our way back down through the lower wooded trail—a black-throated green. Sparrows included white-throat, song, field, chipping, savannah, and junco. Saw a couple kestrels toward the summit; saw a pair of cowbirds and heard the call of a redwing.
Jay, robin, titmouse. At one point, a silent hermit thrush hopped up on a trailside twig. (Hermit thrushes have been common up there so far this year.) We met Chuck and his German shepherd dog, Greta, on the trail for the first time this year.
Returning down through the woods, I noticed Jack looking intently in a particular direction. We stopped. I heard rustling over that way in last fall’s leaves. Then I saw a turkey sneaking off along an old stone wall. I understand turkey season began today. There are plenty to go around, I guess—but I’m sort of rooting for the turkeys.
 American crow. Heard a few Canada geese fly over. Heard the clipped phrases of solitary blue-headed vireo. Then, not far from the parking lot, I heard what sounded like crows swarming something. I couldn’t spot the crows or whatever they were harassing—but I did hear the high whistle of a broad-winged hawk. Or was it a jay imitating the broad-winged? We stopped and I cast about the sky beyond the still-leafless branches of the big oaks. Finally, I spotted the source of the sound: a broad-wing, sure enough. Then I saw another. The pair of hawks circled above the trees for a while then zipped away, one after another, toward the east.
Quite a few bird on the hill today. In fact, only two on my list did not appear up there—house finch and cardinal. I heard the latter out back of my place as the sun went down.
The sun, by the way, emerged from behind the clouds not long after we returned from Beech Hill.
I understand rain is due tomorrow. That’ll likely change things around a bit. Still, I’m looking forward to what the next few days of May will bring.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Ovenbird (voice)
2. Eastern phoebe
3. Northern flicker (voice)
4. Eastern towhee
5. American crow
6. Black-capped chickadee
7. Herring gull
8. White-throated sparrow
9. American goldfinch
10. Purple finch (voice)
11. Yellow-rumped warbler
12. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
13. Downy woodpecker (voice)
14. Song sparrow
15. American kestrel
16. Common yellowthroat
17. Brown-headed cowbird
18. Savannah sparrow
19. Red-winged blackbird
20. Blue jay (voice)
21. American robin
22. Tufted titmouse (voice)
23. Field sparrow (voice)
24. Hermit thrush
25. Mourning dove (voice)
26. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
27. Chipping sparrow (voice)
28. Tree swallow (voice)
29. Wild turkey
30. Canada goose (voice)
31. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
32. Blue-headed vireo (voice)
33. Broad-winged hawk
Elsewhere
34. House finch
35. Northern cardinal
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American kestrel, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, broad-winged hawk, brown-headed cowbird, Canada goose, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, ovenbird, purple finch, red-winged blackbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, wild turkey, yellow-rumped warbler
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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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