Yellow-rumped warbler.
I heard them this sunny early morning—the chips and peeps of little song birds winging over. They travel overnight, when the air is cool and the trip requires less energy and fewer predators are about. They tend to come down in the morning and flit about in leafy branches during the day. During the day today, I heard jays and titmice and chickadees out back of my place—birds that don’t generally undertake a grand migration.
Cedar waxwing.
But at Beech Hill this late afternoon, hiking the chilly woods with Jack, again I heard plenty of warblers chipping up in the canopy. Yellow-rumps, many of them, I could tell; but there were others up there flitting and chipping that I could not see well enough to ID. (I did recently invest in some nice new binoculars, however, which I will break in next week when I’m out on Monhegan Island.)
Lots of ‘rumps. Quite a few flickers again. And I heard the cries of a towhee down at the edge of a field. First towhee I’ve heard in at least a couple weeks, I’d guess. I wonder if the bird was moving through. At the summit, I heard more chips and peeps overhead and saw tiny distant flocks of little birds.
Returning, I caught sight of a yellow-rump deep in a bush, and we both stayed there long enough for me to focus my camera. Then I heard the squee! of a single waxwing. The sound was very near. So, knowing a little about waxwings’ behavior, I stepped back a bit from under a small tree and peered up at its tip—and there it was.
There’s something powerfully thrilling about fall migration.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:30 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee**
2. Yellow-rumped warbler**
3. Blue jay** (v)
4. Herring gull* (v)
5. Northern flicker
6. American crow*
7. Gray catbird
8. White-throated sparrow (v)
9. Eastern towhee (v)
10. Cedar waxwing
11. White-breasted nuthatch
Elsewhere
12. Tufted titmouse (v)
13. Red-eyed vireo (v)
14. Rock pigeon
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, northern flicker, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
