Captain Jack and I got wet this morning. I’d gone to bed last night expecting early thundershowers, but I awoke to just plain fog. Checked the weather radar, and rain was approaching, but it looked to be more than an hour away. So we set off.
We headed up the main trail, where at least I’d get a picture of my favorite birch tree. Foggy, for sure. Few bird species (fewer seen (fewer photographed)), but pretty fun being up there in the dampness and mists. At first I didn’t expect we’d go far, but I decided to visit the woods for a bit. ended up doing the loop, and on our return, the rain came.
Yep, we got soaked. It was amazing. Didn’t last overly long—our return down the open trail was dry (and less foggy)—but the sweet memory will remain.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 7:35 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American Goldfinch 2. Song Sparrow* 3. Eastern Towhee 4. Gray Catbird 5. Common Yellowthroat 6. American Crow (v) 7. Eastern Wood-pewee (v) 8. Black-capped Chickadee** 9. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v) 10. Blue Jay 11. White-breasted Nuthatch (v) 12. Tufted Titmouse
This was an odd, windy, hazy, crazily quiet morning. Had no birds on my list until dog and I had walked about half way up the lower wooded trail—the distant caw of a crow. Next I heard woodpeckers excavating a tree up ahead: a pair of Pileated Woopeckers.
Weird.
For the rest of our hike, I counted a dozen other species. Fourteen total. The lowest number since our return to Maine
Yard bird.
Come early afternoon, after the sun emerged and the air warmed into the 80s, and I decided to take a twelve-mile bike ride—I counted several additional species. And came eye to eye with a turkey right out the kitchen window.
Eerie.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 7:29 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American Crow** (v) 2. Pileated Woodpecker 3. Eastern Towhee 4. Cedar Waxwing 5. Red-breasted Nuthatch 6. Herring Gull* 7. American Goldfinch 8. Song Sparrow 9. American Robin (v) 10. Yellow-rumped Warbler 11. Gray Catbird 12. Black-capped Chickadee** 13. Red-eyed Vireo 14. Blue Jay (v)
Elsewhere
15. Mourning Dove 16. Carolina Wren (v) 17. Wild Turkey 18. Rock Pigeon 19. Osprey (v) 20. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
Mammals
Eastern Gray Squirrel
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
A lovely morning—clear, with a bit of breeze, still greenery everywhere. Also birds, quite a few species. Among them three woodpecker species.
I do like woodpeckers. Love ’em, actually—their drumming, their unique method of hunting and dining, their calls, their bouncy flight. Today’s species were hairy and downy and red-bellied (in the reverse order). Others I see on the hill are pileated, flicker, and sapsucker. I love ’em all.
Today’s best woodpecker encounter was at the end of our hike, when dog and I stopped to admire the interactions of a little family of Hairy Woodpeckers—a chase, some vocalizations, some excavations.
In my world, a day without woodpeckers is just a little diminished.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-capped Chickadee 2. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v) 3. Ovenbird (v) 4. Gray Catbird** 5. Eastern Wood-pewee (v) 6. White-breasted Nuthatch (v) 7. Tufted Titmouse (v) 8. Red-eyed Vireo 9. Downy Woodpecker (v) 10. Eastern Towhee 11. Common Raven (v) 12. Common Yellowthroat 13. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v) 14. American Goldfinch (v) 15. American Crow* (v) 16. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 17. Yellow-rumped Warbler 18. Ruby-throated Hummingbird 19. Cedar Waxwing 20. Song Sparrow 21. Blue Jay 22. Northern Cardinal** 23. Purple Finch 24. American Robin 25. Ruffed Grouse 26. Hairy Woodpecker
Elsewhere
27. Mourning Dove
Mammals
Eastern Gray Squirrel
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
