Common yellowthroat (young male).
August 13, 2013. First thing this morning I thought, “Well, I hope today is the lucky thirteenth!”—and then I flung fresh-ground coffee all over my kitchen floor. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react to that, so I just kept on keeping on.
Common yellowthroat fledgling.
Busy day at the office, but a creative and productive one. Foggy early but cleared up late. And by the end of it, Jack and I were headed up a dry, birdy Beech Hill trail.
Not sure where all the birds came from all of a sudden—although it seemed a lot of the obvious ones were youngsters. Happened to spot a solitary female black-and-white warbler poking silently around in the leafy shade and was watching her when another warbler popped up out of nowhere: a juvenile male yellowthroat, which posed for a photo or two. Later I spied a tiny yellowthroat fledgling.
Heard a catbird, heard a song sparrow, heard blue jays. Spotted plenty of waxwings (including this year’s crop), spotted a pair of barn swallows. Heard a raven, saw crows.
As always, I was hoping to avoid ending up with a prime number of Beech Hill birds today. As it happened, I ended up with thirteen.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. American goldfinch**
2. Black-and-white warbler
3. Black-capped chickadee**
4. Common yellowthroat
5. Blue jay (v)
6. American crow*
7. Cedar waxwing
8. Gray catbird (v)
9. Song sparrow (v)
10. Barn swallow
11. Red-eyed vireo (v)
12. Common raven (v)
13. Eastern towhee (v)
Elsewhere
14. Yellow warbler (v)
15. Tufted titmouse (v)
16. Northern cardinal (v)
17. House sparrow (v)
18. Herring gull
19. Mallard
20. Ring-billed gull
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, barn swallow, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow
