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Archive for March, 2012
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
 Beech Nut. A few of us pay attention to the clues. The faint sounds, the furtive movement in the dripping brush. We seek out the trail not for the physical challenge, or conversation with a hiking friend, or the grand view. It’s the small things we see or hear or sense in other, subtler ways. We birders, I mean. We tend, when we’re out in the landscape, to live in the moment. Maybe that’s the main thing about the pursuit that attract us—it’s so easy to slip into The Zone, to forget past losses and future fears in favor of the immediate, every single thing there is to notice, each small surprise after another.
 Work of a pileated woodpecker. As seems to happen a lot, I didn’t expect to find much on my Beech Hill hike today with Jack. Because of the weather, I mean—bone-chillingly drizzly (30s (F), tops), damp and drippy, dark with a heavy overcast. Didn’t see or hear a bird for a good while, too. But finally I heard the voices of chickadees. Then I heard the sudden rapid-fire call of a pileated woodpecker not far away.
Pileateds have been busy up there lately, come to think of it. The trunks of many young hardwoods are eaten up, great chunks of bark stripped free, piles of shavings on the forest floor beneath them. They’ve actually felled a couple small dead trees with all their drilling. Looks like the work of beavers.
At the summit, a small movement: a brown blur of a song sparrow flitting silently away. Another brown blur was the phoebe, still hanging around the same trees as yesterday. Then, back down in the woods, the bright short song of a brown creeper echoing amid the dripping trees. And the faint, nearer notes of a white-breasted nuthatch. Then a big rush as three large turkeys dash away behind a rise and out of our sight. We paused to let them run. And, finally, the notes of a goldfinch from a treetop somewhere.
That’s a lot of birds for a rainy, dreary day. And it occurred to me that, of the nine species on today’s Beech Hill list, most of us likely would’ve only noticed only the turkeys.
The overcast did dash one hope of mine today, however: to witness the new moon’s thin crescent appear in a cluster with Venus and Jupiter low in the southwestern sky. So I contented myself instead with listening to the squawks and titters of a horny American woodcock.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:15 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. Pileated woodpecker (voice)
3. American crow (voice)
4. Song sparrow
5. Eastern phoebe
6. Brown creeper (voice)
7. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
8. Wild turkey
9. American goldfinch (voice)
Elsewhere
10. House sparrow
11. Tufted titmouse
12. Northern cardinal
13. Downy woodpecker
14. Herring gull
15. American robin
16. Mourning dove
17. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, American woodcock, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, pileated woodpecker, song sparrowe, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch
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Saturday, March 24th, 2012
 Eastern phoebe. I like the little birds. The sparrows, the flycatchers, the warblers. The big birds are spectacular and awe-inspiring, of course. (Whose breath doesn’t catch at the sight of a peregrine falcon, a great blue heron, an adult bald eagle?) But the little guys—the finches, the thrushes, the tits—seem particularly demure and precious to me. Plus, they tend to sing ear-pleasing songs.
 White-breasted nuthatch. The crazy heat wave abated overnight, and today dawned cool and partly cloudy. But out back came a wave of small birds. I heard titmice and chickadees and the resident (mellifluous) cardinal. A pair of nuthatches showed up. And our littlest woodpecker (downy). Song sparrow, house finch, even the alien, ubiquitous house sparrow. An American goldfinch. The sharp-billed titmouse, chickadee, and nuthatch seem akin to me—I watched as they poked around in the bark of the hardwoods and (in the case of the nuthatch) investigated nesting cavities in the giant overhanging oak.
I thought about a bike ride but, considering the temperature (50 degrees (F), tops), wimped out. However, substituting a hooded sweatshirt for a t-shirt, I did take my daily Beech Hill hike with Jack.
Not many birds up there in the chilly, breezy trees. Saw a crow, heard chickadees. Surprisingly, we had the summit to ourselves—a chilly, breezy summit—but saw no bluebirds or northern harriers. But I heard a faint peep! coming from down the eastern slope, so we stopped to wait for the bird to appear. And it did. A phoebe. First phoebe I’ve seen on the hill this year (they nest dependably in the eaves of Beech Nut). It only peeped, did not sing its eponymous fee-bee! I wonder if it was a female? I’m not well-versed in such things. But what a comely, pretty bird.
 Downy woodpecker. No more LBJs (little brown jobs) that I noticed up there today. A mourning dove on the way home. And tonight, again, the woodcock delivers its call from across the road.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:15 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. American crow
2. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
3. Eastern phoebe
4. Northern cardinal (voice)
Elsewhere
5. House sparrow
6. House finch
7. Tufted titmouse
8. Song sparrow
9. American robin
10. American goldfinch
11. White-breasted nuthatch
12. Downy woodpecker
13. Herring gull
14. Rock pigeon
15. Mourning dove
16. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, American woodcock, black-capped chickadee, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch
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Friday, March 23rd, 2012
 Boardwalk. The wind picked up. It swirled and swept
The sands of winter off the roads
In rising clouds. And then a lull.
And then a swirl, and branches clacked
And swayed. Old leaves danced by.
 American robin. Out on the pavement, on my bike,
I had to lean into the wind,
And heading north I had to strain.
The cloudless sky, an azure blue.
Then, finally, southward, ho!
As Jack and I began our hike
Amid the clacking, squeaking trees
Still bare of leaves, a robin called.
Cool air, spring air. We’re buffeted,
And bluster rides the hill.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. American robin
2. Northern cardinal (voice)
3. Herring gull
4. American crow (voice)
5. Black-capped chickadee
Elsewhere
6. House finch
7. Tufted titmouse
8. Rock pigeon
9. Mourning dove
10. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American robin, American woodcock, black-capped chickadee, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, rock pigeon, tufted titmouse
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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