American robin.
I’d say I got up on the wrong side of the bed, except there’s only one side to get up on. It was a sunny day, but again too cool and breezy to think about a bike ride. But I did think about it, and I probably would’ve taken one if I didn’t get entangled in so much work-related crap right out of the gate. The first bird I saw today, out the window while washing dishes, was a starling zipping back to its nest in a cavity in the peak of the neighbor’s roof. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Litter.
I dropped things. I forgot stuff. I cursed under my breath.
But there’s always Beech Hill. And Jack and I were really ready for our hike this afternoon. Of course right away I noticed the tracks of a mountain bike on the muddy wooded track—and mountain bikes are a major no-no on the Beech Hill trails. Kind of ticked me off. In fact, it ticked me off to the point where I was imagining tackling any mountain biker whom I met coming my way.
Took a bunch of photos before realizing I’d somehow screwed up my new camera settings. Nearing the summit, I heard crows hollering at something but didn’t hurry up to see what was going on and missed a good crow-harrier chase. Could’ve had a nice photo. We walked down the open trail a ways to hunt for sparrows, but none appeared. What did appear was a McDonald’s cup someone had tossed carelessly over into the blueberries. People suck, is what I was thinking right about then. I retrieved someone else’s litter, and we started back over the hill.
Coming back down, a corvid of some kind (crow? raven?) was sitting in the middle of a field not far from us, and I couldn’t get my camera to wake up in time to capture it as it rose with something white in its beak and flapped slowly away. Sure looked like a raven to me, but I was too busy fiddling with my camera to get an accurate ID.
But I did get to hear the bright song of a brown creeper. And I did get a portrait of a robin. And a goldfinch flew over.
And tomorrow is the first of May.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee*
2. American robin*
3. American crow*
4. Northern harrier
5. Tufted titmouse* (v)
6. Brown creeper (v)
7. American goldfinch* (v)
Elsewhere
8. European starling
9. Herring gull
10. House finch (v)
11. Song sparrow (v)
12. Osprey (v)
13. Chipping sparrow (v)
14. Turkey vulture
15. Rock dove
16. Northern cardinal (v)
17. Mourning dove
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, European starling, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern harrier, osprey, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, turkey vulture
