17 February 2025

Cuckoo

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Black-billed cuckoo, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 May 2010.

Black-billed cuckoo.

The time was about 6:45 a.m. The temperature was about 72 degrees (F). Dog and I began our daily walk up Beech Hill.

We climbed the upper wooded trail, as is our habit. The usual warblers called. Mosquitos buzzed around us. The day seemed humid, hazy. We had no expectations—simply a wish to be moving, to be turning the next corner, to be smelling things, to be listening. We had a wish to move.

About half-way up, I heard it—the telltale ch-bek! of a least flycatcher.

“Slow,” I said to Jack.

Least flycatcher, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 May 2010.

Least flycatcher.

We turned a corner and I peered through a little window of foliage onto the tip of a hardwood where, sure enough, the diminutive flycatcher perched and called. Occasionally, I noticed, it turned its head my way. I’m sure it saw me standing there holding my camera  through that little window of foliage. Before long, it left its perch, and then I heard its ch-bek! coming from a lot farther away.

Nearing the top—the juncture of the two wooded trails—I caught sight of a wide-winged shape slipping away in some low greenery. It didn’t look familiar.

“Slow,” I said.

Black-billed cuckoo, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 May 2010.

Black-billed cuckoo.

Around the next corner, I saw the bird: a black-billed cuckoo. It perched quietly as I snapped away. I’d thought about black-bills for several weeks—ever since the tent caterpillars began emerging, among their favorite foods. I’d heard their slight, suble “cu-cu-cu-cu” on the hill several times before, but this was the first I’d seen there. (Ironically, I saw a less-common yell0w-billed cuckoo up there just last year.) Eventually, the bird flapped graceful, silently, away.

This morning was notable also for its non-avian species: amphibian (we came upon another toad hopping across the trail), mammal (we spooked a chipmunk that climbed a tree to hide), and reptile (we nearly trod on a northern brown snake near the gate at Beech Hill Road). My list-keeping friend Kristen notes the northern brown as the fourth snake species recorded on Beech Hill, the others being garter, smooth green, and red-bellied. (Coincidentally, I’ve taken photos of two of the other three.)

Eastern chipmunk, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 May 2010.

Eastern chipmunk.

Otherwise, a fairly uneventful hike. Warmth, perspiration, the usual birds. Coming back down the lower wooded trail, I heard the black-throated blue with the aberrant call. (I like knowing who that is now.) And then suddenly came an eruption of song from a blackburnian warbler somewhere high in the canopy nearly overhead—an urgent, paired-note, high-to-the-limit-of-hearing kind of song. I recognize the blackie’s song much better this year, thanks to my hikes up the Thorndike Brook trail.

Later in the day, laughing gulls called from overhead, as they’ve done for weeks now. A pair of cardinals are raising a family out back of the neighbor’s house. And then some kind of front blew in, graying up the sky and causing the temperature to dip maybe 20 degrees (F).

Tonight the world is partly starry and cool. Moonlight seeps from behind black moving clouds. Change sails along with the air.

Northern brown snake, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 26 May 2010.

Northern brown snake.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I walked all trails.

1. Yellow warbler (voice)
2. Ovenbird (voice)
3. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
4. Tufted titmouse (voice)
5. Red-eyed vireo
6. Eastern towhee (voice)
7. Chestnut-sided warbler
8. American crow (voice)
9. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
10. American redstart (voice)
11. Blue jay
12. Alder flycatcher (voice)
13. Common yellowthroat
14. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
15. Veery (voice)
16. Gray catbird
17. Mourning dove
18. Eastern wood-pewee
19. Least flycatcher*
20. Black-billed cuckoo*
21. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
22. Song sparrow
23. Tree swallow
24. Nashville warbler (voice)
25. Cedar waxwing
26. Eastern phoebe
27. Field sparrow
28. Savannah sparrow
29. Hermit thrush (voice)
30. American goldfinch
31. White-throated sparrow (voice)
32. American robin
33. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
34. Chipping sparrow (voice)
35. Blue-headed vireo (voice)
36. Common grackle
37. Blackburnian warbler (voice)

*First-of-year bird

Elsewhere

38. Herring gull
39. House sparrow
40. Laughing gull
41. European starling
42. Northern cardinal

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Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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