View from Beech Hill.
The early sunlight this morning surprised me. Not its earliness so much as the fact of it—I’d expected an overcast. And the universe soon met my expectations, as clouds rolled in pretty early, bring with them light rain.
American kestrel.
Birds already returned kept somewhat hidden, perhaps having already paired up and staked out nests. They weren’t shy vocally—I heard phoebes, cardinals, house finches, crows, song sparrows—but they kept mostly out of sight. Well, not the crows, of course. It’s hard to miss crows. But the phoebes, sparrows, cardinals, and robins. (Also heard a couple robins.) I did grab a photo of the neighborhood phoebe, though.
About midday, just as dog and I hit Beech Hill, it began to drizzle. You could hear the chickadee and the flicker and the robin, the titmouse and the phoebe and the song sparrow, but you couldn’t see them. At least not easily. I just missed a nice photo of a Beech hill phoebe, but it flitted away.
About half-way up, after scanning the slopes below, I spotted a solitary bird perched motionlessly on the upper branch of a small tree. A kestrel. As I watched it, the little falcon flitted to two other perches before finally flapping down and away to the southeast. Then, at the summit, out of nowhere, an osprey sailed by carrying a fish. For the second straight day.
A gentle rain, but not a lot of wind. The islands lay in a particularly scenic array out in Penobscot Bay.
Osprey.
Coming down, again scanning the lower slopes, I happened to see another hawk soaring low over the field and across South Street. Through the binoculars, I identified it as a buteo, likely a red-tail. Maybe even the same one I saw down there yesterday. In fact, today’s kestrel might’ve been the same bird accosting it a day ago.
Osprey, kestrel, redtail—all invisible if I hadn’t been paying attention.
Eastern phoebe.
The rest of the day I spent mostly indoors. A little sun poked through at some point this afternoon, but then it clouded over again and rained. By tonight, though, the sky cleared, revealing stars and the setting horns of a crescent new moon.
Today’s List
American crow
Northern cardinal
Eastern phoebe
Song sparrow
House finch
American robin
Mourning dove
Herring gull
Black-capped chickadee
Downy woodpecker
Northern flicker
American kestrel
Osprey
Red-tailed hawk
Western landscape.
Tags: American crow, American kestrel, American robin, black-capped chickadee, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, osprey, red-tailed hawk, song sparrow
