Dog and I hiked in the rain this morning. Not a hard rain, but a steady one for much of it. Hardly any birds to start, but I began to hear some in the woodlands—and after the rain let up a bit, got a glimpse of a few species.
The highlight: a juvenile Prairie Warbler that popped up for a photo at the very end of our hike. First prairie I’ve seen this year (although I heard ’em singing in spring).
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:28 a.m. EST (8:28 DST), I hiked all trails.
1. Cedar Waxwing 2. Eastern Wood-pewee (v) 3. Black-capped Chickadee (v) 4. American Redstart 5. Red-eyed Vireo (v) 6. Broad-winged Hawk (v) 7. Gray Catbird 8. Eastern Towhee (v) 9. American Goldfinch (v) 10. Song Sparrow 11. American Crow* (v) 12. Prairie Warbler
Coolish again to start this day, but the flood of sun warmed things up soon enough. Not so many species as yesterday, but interesting encounters. Including, for the third straight day, another hawk flyby.
Raptors seem to take to the sky when they get that instinctual urge to move. That’s why there are so many hawk watches out there during migration—head to a high place and start counting. Today’s was an immature Broad-winged Hawk (along with another individual whose age I couldn’t gauge). They nest in these parts but migrate down to South America in fall.
Supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I wonder if dog and I will encounter a hawk in the rain.
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:33 a.m. EST (8:33 DST), I hiked all trails.
1. Black-capped Chickadee 2. American Goldfinch** 3. Gray Catbird** 4. Eastern Wood-pewee 5. Eastern Towhee 6. Red-eyed Vireo (v) 7. Black-and-white Warbler 8. Brown Creeper 9. Blue Jay (v) 10. White-breasted Nuthatch** 11. American Crow* 12. American Redstart 13. Chipping Sparrow 14. Common Yellowthroat (v) 15. Cedar Waxwing 16. Song Sparrow 17. Broad-winged Hawk 18. Barn Swallow
Elsewhere
19. Mourning Dove 20. Herring Gull 21. Rock Pigeon
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
It was a cool one, this morning. I hesitate to say I smelled a whiff of fall, considering autumn’s still a month away, but the weather conditions weren’t the only signs of the changing seasons. A number of migratory birds seemed to be revving up for a journey.
A pair of sharpies, for instance, circling in the cloudless sky, the smaller male occasionally charging at the larger female. Vultures also circled overhead. And in the woods tiny warblers chased and flitted nervously.
“Time doth flit,” wrote Dorothy Parker. It won’t be long, I suppose.
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:06 a.m. EST (8:06 DST), I hiked all trails.
