Beech Hill, 05 April 2010.
A sunny, warm-looking day greeted me as I stepped up to the sink first thing. I’d already heard the cardinal singing its particularly staccato song. Also crows, song sparrow, phoebe, robin, and downy woodpecker. A starling flew from somewhere up into a low, still-bare branch of one of the oaks then flew away again. I saw a little bird also, sort of coppery-colored, but it flitted off before I could get a look through fieldglasses.
Northern cardinal (male).
The cardinal is so love-struck these days that he doesn’t seem to care how close you come. I got a couple photos. Across the road, the house sparrows chirped in the awnings of the Claddagh Motel—”chirping” is the perfect word, when it comes to house sparrows—and I heard the house finch across the way, as usual. I got to looking forward to a nice warm walk up Beech Hill with the dog and, later, a good sweaty bike ride. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Oh, we got a nice walk—it just wasn’t overly warm. A wind had picked up by midday and, about the time we reached the summit, a sudden bank of clouds was blowing in from the west. A powerful wind, in fact (which made me sort of dread the bike ride). No birds to speak of. No hawks. No song sparrows. A titmouse calling. A phoebe. Not until we’d made the whole circuit and were nearing the parking lot did I get a notable sighting: the phoebe that nests in the Coastal Mountains Land Trust kiosk was back. I’d been looking for the bird these past few days. Felt like old times.
Budding.
Upon arriving back home—we couldn’t have been gone an hour—the sky had gone from mostly blue to mostly overcast sky. I did take that bike ride, but it was somewhat chilly and slightly wind-whipped. I did hear an American woodcock, though, and passed many roadside crows.
By evening, the sky’d taken a breathtaking turn: lumpy, ripply, white-and-purple clouds with bright scraps of empty blue here and there. I wish I’d had my camera.
Today’s List
Northern cardinal
American crow
Song sparrow
Eastern phoebe
American robin
Tufted titmouse
European starling
House sparrow
House finch
Downy woodpecker
Herring gull
Mourning dove
Black-capped chickadee
Turkey vulture
Ring-billed gull
American woodcock
Looking west from the summit of Beech Hill.
Tags: American crow, American robin, American woodcock, black-capped chickadee, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, European starling, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ring-billed gull, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, turkey vulture
