Black-throated green warbler.
On this latest in a series of calm, quiet afternoons on the wooded Beech Hill trail, Jack and I found what had to be the calmest and most quiet. So quiet that I felt compelled to walk slowly, as quietly as I could, so as not to disturb the stillness. Jack didn’t seem to mind.
Red-eyed vireo.
What I heard were the trills of crickets and the rush of distant traffic. An occasional wood frog. It took several long minutes before I heard evidence of any bird: a catbird, mewing softly from a thicket. Then a goldfinch flying overhead. By the time we’d reached the half-way point, I’d added the caw of a crow, the note of a song sparrow, and the cries of a faraway osprey. Not until we’d neared the summit fields did the first roving band of chickadees show up, and their peeps were faint and sparse. But I know to stop for chickadees, and sure enough they were accompanied by the first species I actually saw up there today—a little family of black-throated green warblers I spotted flitting through the trees.
At the field edge, then, a commotion. Chip notes of yellowthroats and white-throated sparrows, cries of towhees beyond. And as I stood there peering into the brush to get a good look, a red-eyed vireo popped silently up and began plucking at some trailside berries.
At about that point, both dog and I heard another commotion coming from the summit: human laughter and conversation. Come to find out a private party was going on at Beech Nut. Our friend Kristen was up there keeping watch. (She’d just seen a migrating nighthawk.) And this side of the bay sails, I caught sight of a herring gull.
Common yellowthroat.
Back down in the trees, the pewees are still about. And I heard the thin calls of a waxwing or two. But little else disturbed the summer stillness of the lovely silent woods.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Gray catbird
2. American goldfinch (v)
3. American crow* (v)
4. Song sparrow (v)
5. Osprey (v)
6. Black-capped chickadee*
7. Black-throated green warbler
8. Common yellowthroat
9. Eastern towhee (v)
10. White-throated sparrow
11. Red-eyed vireo
12. Herring gull
13. Eastern wood-pewee (v)
14. Cedar waxwing (v)
Elsewhere
15. Rock pigeon
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, herring gull, osprey, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow
