Landscape (from Beech Hill).
Every day is different, and it makes the world wondrous place. You just never know. Hiking Beech Hill is sort of like an amusement park ride—you know, the kind where you climb in a boat and get carried along and have no idea what will appear and often what appears is cool or startling or inspiring. Really, the case could be made that all of life is like that.
American crow.
Today it was big birds in the sky.
The woodland birds were mostly quiet, it being late on another drippy afternoon. I did hear a flicker, some warblers—and spotted two silent ones (parula, chestnut-sided). After yesterday’s particularly thrushy day, today I didn’t even hear a single hermit thrush. Heard but saw no robins.
But standing at the summit with Jack, the two of us scanning the landscape, I heard the high-pitched whistle of a broad-winged hawk. Thing is, I’d also heard blue jays down that way, and jays have been known to imitate broad-wings (among other hawks). But this call was coming from on high—and I finally did spot a pair of them, circling, heading west. We walked down the open trail, where I heard a few other passerines and spotted a distant turkey vulture. Then, coming back over and down, I heard the croak of a raven then watched the big bird flying away from a pair of pesky crows.
Later, down the soggy lower trail, I heard another raven above and behind us—possibly the same bird (or its mate)—the watched it sail low above the trees, its husky voice calling all the way.
Beech Nut.
Heading home in the pickup, coming down the hill along Clam Cove, I happened to see a large bird soaring across to the bay. It was the kind of sighting most people would’ve missed—certainly most non-birders, who might easily have mistaken the bird for just another herring gull. But I recognized it at once for what it was: an adult bald eagle. I’ll never tire of living among eagles.
Back home, I heard chickadees and the insistent, repetitive notes of a nuthatch. Also an ovenbird, calling from somewhere up the hill.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:15 p.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Northern flicker (v)
2. Ovenbird* (v)
3. American robin* (v)
4. Black-and-white warbler*
5. Eastern phoebe
6. Northern parula
7. Black-capped chickadee
8. Chestnut-sided warbler
9. Herring gull* (v)
10. Blue jay (v)
11. Eastern towhee (v)
12. Song sparrow (v)
13. American crow
14. Downy woodpecker (v)
15. Broad-winged hawk‡
16. American goldfinch (v)
17. House finch (v)
18. Blue-headed vireo (v)
19. Nashville warbler (v)
20. Turkey vulture
21. Common raven
22. White-throated sparrow (v)
Elsewhere
23. European starling
24. Rock pigeon
25. Mallard
26. Bald eagle
27. White-breasted nuthatch
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
‡First-of-year bird
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, bald eagle, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, broad-winged hawk, chestnut-sided warbler, common raven, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, herring gull, house finch, mallard, Nashville warbler, northern flicker, northern parula, ovenbird, rock pigeon, song sparrow, turkey vulture, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow
