Eastern phoebe.

I had more than twice as many birds on my Beech Hill list today than I did yesterday, although that’s not saying much. Still, it was a nice hike with Jack, as always, and a quiet one—no encounters with other hikers. Few encounters with birds. Earlier in the day a fast, vicious, delicious thundershower blew through, washing the landscape and cooling the air. Slightly. By the time we hit the hill, the air had gone still and humid.

A goldfinch flew over. I heard the faint peeps of chickadees and the quay! of a vireo. About half way up the hill, a catbird flitted off the trail in front of us. At the summit, I heard crows. Also heard a waxwing, looked up, and saw the solitary bird sailing away to the northwest.

Bees in the asters. Mushrooms in the wood.

I kept hearing high-pitched voices of young birds but couldn’t tell what they were. Young vireos, possibly—who knows. Two or three times I spotted little passerines flitting in the thick canopy, but I never got a good look at them. Until, returning down the lower trail, I happened to see a bird leaving a perch on a high stump, dipping down for a bug or caterpillar, then returning to its perch. Flycatcher behavior. We got close enough that I managed to ID it as a phoebe.

By the time we’d descended nearly to the base of the hill, I’d about decided the pewees had moved on when the voice of one startled me. Then another. I managed to catch sight of it, even. Nice.

Tonight there’s a chill in the air. All about things seem to be stirring.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:15 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.

1. American goldfinch (v)
2. Black-capped chickadee (v)
3. Gray catbird
4. Red-eyed vireo
5. Cedar waxwing
6. American crow* (v)
7. Eastern phoebe
8. Eastern wood-pewee

Elsewhere

9. Herring gull
10. Ring-billed gull
11. Rock pigeon
12. House sparrow
13. Mourning dove
14. Black-and-white warbler (v)

V = Voice only
*Also elsewhere