Scarlet tanager (nonbreeding male).
Worked most of the day, then rode my bike, then—at the end of it—hiked Beech Hill with Jack. As we got out of the truck, I stood and just listened. The air was still, and I could hear the faint percussive sounds of some machinery working on something down South Street a quarter mile or so, but otherwise? Nothing.
Common nighthawk, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine 26 August 2013.
Long seconds. Nothing. Nothing. Then the tiny peeps of a chickadee. I looked up in the general direction of the chickadee peeps and saw a bird perched high on a dead snag. But it wasn’t a chickadee.
Trained my binocs on the bird. It was a vireo. A motionless, silent, blue-headed vireo. Then I saw other birds flitting around up there, making no sound. Warblers, possibly. Then sure enough a chickadee. Then a larger, yellow bird. Trained my binocs: a nonbreeding tanager. Then I heard goldfinches. Then up beyond the tanager I saw two, no three nighthawks flapping in that distinctive lazy style of theirs, southbound. Then I heard the wheep! of a distant towhee. Then I saw black-and-white warblers and heard the sudden, rapid-fire notes of a least flycatcher.
Fall migration has begun.
Ten species before we even started up the main trail. Saw more chickadees and some smaller birds. More black-and-white warblers, and a chestnut-sided warbler. We had stopped still, and these had flitted into the branches of a little birch directly over our heads. Could not focus, alas.
Sparrows, waxwings, a catbird. And in the spruces at the summit, a little collection of yellow-rumped warblers.
Blue-headed vireo.
I’m kind of psyched, actually. Migration has begun.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped chickadee**
2. Blue-headed vireo
3. American goldfinch**
4. Common nighthawk
5. Scarlet tanager
6. Eastern towhee
7. Least flycatcher
8. Black-and-white warbler
9. Blue jay** (v)
10. White-breasted nuthatch
11. American crow* (v)
12. Cedar waxwing**
13. Common yellowthroat (v)
14. Chestnut-sided warbler
15. Field sparrow
16. Song sparrow
17. Gray catbird
18. Yellow-rumped warbler
19. Common raven (v)
Elsewhere
20. Herring gull
21. Northern cardinal (v)
22. Wild turkey
23. Double-crested cormorant
24. Mourning dove
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common nighthawk, common raven, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern towhee, field sparrow, gray catbird, herring gull, least flycatcher, mourning dove, northern cardinal, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, wild turkey, yellow-rumped warbler
