Scarlet tanager.
I wasn’t sure today’s hike with Jack would be an early one, but then the sun emerged, and I saw blue sky to the west, and that’s all the incentive I needed to grab Jack and my camera and binoculars and jump in the pickup and drive. Sunny, humid, mud, mosquitos. Birds.
Common yellowthroat
Quite a few birds. A lot of ’em. The usual suspects as we ascended the upper wooded trail—but then I heard an unfamiliar call. A sort of chatterly-chatterly-chatterly-chatterly. It sounded like a Carolina wren but seemed a little softer. We stood still for about five minutes, but I never saw the bird, and eventually it moved away.
Heard the alarm note of a cuckoo, but couldn’t spot that bird, either. Veery, towhee, crow. At the summit, a pair of barn swallows circled Beech Nut, and the phoebes are still hauling in food for their nestlings.
Down at Beech Hill Road, only one of the three redstarts was singing, oddly. I also heard the (kind of off-key) song a white-throated sparrow. Then, returning along the road, I heard chatterly-chatterly-chatterly. A bird moving in the yard of the house across the road. This one definitely sounded like a Carolina wren, and I decided it must’ve been the same bird I’d heard earlier, traveling in the same direction.
Back at the summit, the barn swallows were replaced by a pair of tree swallows. And coming down the lower wooded trail, I heard pewee, tanager, flicker. Decided to track down the tanager, so we left the trail and headed down into a realm of tall oakes and sparse undergrowth, where I finally spied the red bird. I’d never been there before, this open understory, bisected by an old stone wall—a very cool place. Snapped a couple (not great) photos, then returned a hundred yards or so to the trail (veering quickly a couple times to avoid patches of poison ivy).
Frond.
We ran into Pete and a couple of parties of middle school kids, working to shore up the muddy flow through the big oak grove. Had a nice chat with their teacher about the resident bird life (and Jack) and then tried to coax the tanager into revealing itself, but it flew off toward the east.
Clouds moved in again by early afternoon, and somehow I missed my usual bicycle ride. But all in all a satisfying day.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Ovenbird** (v)
2. Red-eyed vireo**
3. Black-throated green warbler (v)
4. Chestnut-sided warbler**
5. Blue jay (v)
6. Tufted titmouse** (v)
7. American goldfinch (v)
8. Rose-breasted grosbeak (v)
9. Gray catbird**
10. Veery
11. American crow*
12. Eastern towhee
13. Yellow warbler**
14. Carolina wren (v)
15. Black-billed cuckoo (v)
16. Common yellowthroat**
17. Yellow warbler**
18. Alder flycatcher
19. Black-and-white warbler (v)
20. Mourning dove*
21. Black-capped chickadee (v)
22. Northern cardinal** (v)
23. Hairy woodpecker (v)
24. Eastern phoebe**
25. Song sparrow**
26. Barn swallow
27. Savannah sparrow
28. Field sparrow
29. American robin*
30. American redstart** (v)
31. White-throated sparrow (v)
32. Purple finch (v)
33. Cedar waxwing (v)
34. Tree swallow
35. Eastern wood-pewee
36. Scarlet tanager
37. Northern flicker (v)
38. Black-throated blue warbler (v)
39. Herring gull*
Elsewhere
40. House finch
41. House sparrow
42. European starling
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, barn swallow, black-and-white warbler, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, Carolina wren, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, ovenbird, purple finch, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, veery, yellow warbler
