They must’ve showed up sometime overnight last night, the white-throated sparrows. All I really know is that there they were this early morning, on either side of the wooded trail, at the summit, down near the Beech Hill Road parking lot. A few early singers—possibly even hardy year-round birds—have been singing “Old Sam Peabody” for a week or ten days, but these birds were new. At least two or three dozen of them, emitting their distinctive tseet! notes, browsing in the understory.
Other sparrows, too: songs, Savannahs, fields—and, today, the first chipping sparrows I’ve heard so far this year. (Towhees, too, of course.) I got so distracted at one point that, obsessed with photographing one of the shy field sparrows, I saw a bird perched in a little birch in the direction of the field’s bouncy song and fired off a few shots, stepped closer, fired off a few more, closer, more… and realized I was photographing a song sparrow. The field sparrow was singing from a branch two trees up. It flew long before I got near enough for a photo.
No fox sparrows this year, though, and I haven’t seen a swamp sparrow in a while. An osprey circled, screaming. And I spotted a mating pair of brown-headed cowbirds, the worst of parents, soon to raid some unsuspecting warbler’s nest. But I saw no kestrels up there this morning for the first time in a week at least, maybe more.
Fittingly, somehow: my best photo of the day was my first—a portrait of a comely phoebe near the wooded trail head.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American robin*
2. Eastern phoebe**
3. Hairy woodpecker (v)
4. House finch**
5. American goldfinch**
6. Black-capped chickadee**
7. Herring gull*
8. Tufted titmouse** (v)
9. Broad-winged hawk (v)
10. Eastern towhee
11. American crow*
12. Yellow-rumped warbler
13. Osprey*
14. Northern flicker (v)
15. Wild turkey (v)
16. Hermit thrush
17. Song sparrow**
18. Savannah sparrow
19. Brown-headed cowbird**
20. Field sparrow
21. Northern cardinal* (v)
22. Double-crested cormorant
23. White-throated sparrow*
24. Chipping sparrow** (v)
25. Blue jay (v)
26. Red-winged blackbird
27. Mourning dove* (v)
Elsewhere
28. Mallard
29. European starling
30. Rock pigeon
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year bird
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, broad-winged hawk, brown-headed cowbird, chipping sparrow, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, mallard, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, osprey, red-winged blackbird, rock pigeon, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, white-throated sparrow, wild turkey, yellow-rumped warbler