Chestnut-sided warbler.
Most of us hurry through our daily lives—work, chores, play. We make appointments then make urgent haste to keep them, running red lights rather than waiting thirty seconds. We complain to our neighbors, we gab on cell phones, we curse and whoop and laugh out loud. Heck, I’m guilty of being in a rush sometimes: I like to race around on a bicycle, going as fast as I can.
Savannah sparrow.
But I also make time for a walk in the woods, where often I simply stand still.
Today was cool and cloudy, with a nervousness in the air. Fog descended, and a little rain, and late a thundershower. I did some errands, took a quick trip to town, rushing from here to there. Finally it came time for a hike with dog. Considering the fog and damp and chance of thunder, we met no one else on the trail. No shouts of humans or barks of dogs. Just the chips and calls of birds. And even the birds seemed nervous—I heard the wacky, jumbled alarm-type songs of both an ovenbird and a yellowthroat soon after we hit the Beech Hill trail.
And they weren’t so secretive today: I saw veeries and a catbird, towhees and a redstart, and at the foggy summit phoebe, Savannah sparrow, and waxwings. At one point on the wooded trail, in fact, I heard a veery singing very near, so we stopped to see if I could sneak a photo. The veery caught on quickly, apparently, because it stopped singing right away—and suddenly we were surrounded by chestnut-sided warblers. Well, a pair of them, one on either side, chipping and flitting in the scrubby trees close by. (We must’ve stopped near their nest.) It made for a nice photo op on a day when I didn’t really expect one.
At times like that I think of Thoreau, who simply “wished to live deliberately.” Just standing quietly out in the woods brings some of the best rewards.
Jack in the woods.
The same thing happened with chickadees, too, when we’d stopped just to listen to the hillside. And, at the wood-edge, with towhees. And at the open summit, with the Savannah sparrow.
So you don’t really have to be in the woods—just somewhere wild and lonely.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:30 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. Veery
3. Ovenbird* (v)
4. Common yellowthroat* (v)
5. Red-eyed vireo (v)
6. Chestnut-sided warbler
7. Gray catbird*
8. American redstart*
9. Eastern towhee
10. American crow*
11. Northern flicker (v)
12. Yellow warbler* (v)
13. Song sparrow* (v)
14. Cedar Waxwing
15. Hermit thrush (v)
16. Eastern phoebe
17. Savannah sparrow
18. Field sparrow (v)
19. American robin*
20. White-breasted nuthatch (v)
21. Hairy woodpecker (drumming)
Elsewhere
22. House finch
23. Northern cardinal (v)
24. Herring gull
25. Mourning dove
26. Rock pigeon
27. Northern mockingbird
28. Tufted titmouse (v)
Tags: American crow, American redstart, American robin, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, northern mockingbird, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, yellow warbler
