17 February 2025

Glorious May

Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Eastern towhee, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 May 2010.

Eastern towhee.

It’s been a good month. I used to like October best—but lately, it’s been May.

Chestnut-sided warbler, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 May 2010.

Chestnut-sided warbler.

On our way up Route 1 toward our usual Beech Hill hike, Jack and I, a good-sized bird soared over the road in front of us. I thought it was a crow at first—but then I saw it was a hawk. An accipiter. A cooper’s hawk. First-of-year bird for me.

Seems the first bird I identify in the trailhead parking lot nearly every morning is an ovenbird. Just about everywhere on the hill you can hear one—certainly in the lower wooded section. Right away I’ll also hear a red-eyed vireo. A chestnut-sided warbler (the comments bird on the hill, I’m convinced). Then either a black-throated green, a crow, a black-and-white warbler, a goldfinch, or a robin.

I listed all those birds this morning, of course, along with the usual five sparrows, redstarts, alder flycatchers, veery, and phoebe. The phoebe was sitting on the nest under the Beech Nut porch roof, warming eggs against the chill.

American redstart (first-year male), Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 May 2010.

American redstart (first-year male).

And it was. Chilly. Fifty-something (F) when we embarked at about 6:30 a.m. That didn’t deter the mosquitos, though.

No least flycatchers or black-billed cuckoos today. Still only one day this year with a hummingbird sighting (actually, two that day). Still many birds singing, though, it being the musical month of May.

Tonight, the rising moon is full. The sky past 9 p.m. still holds the memory of daylight.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I walked all trails.

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

Elsewhere

31. Cooper’s hawk*
32. House sparrow
33. Herring gull
34. Laughing gull
35. Northern cardinal
36. House finch
37. European starling
38. Common grackle
39. Rock pigeon

*First-of-year bird.

Cedar waxwing, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 May 2010.

Cedar waxwing.

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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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