Veery.
Cool again this morning, and also overcast. A morning of chill humidity and fog. I thought I’d probably see few birds today, and hear not very many more. Happily, I was wrong.
Veery.
The usual birds were calling on the lower wooded trail as Jack and I started walking: ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, black-throated green warbler. I heard a goldfinch, a yellowthroat, a towhee, an alder flycatcher. The birdsong was intermittent, the birds not overly vocal. Then from somewhere in the misty woods I heard the vee-urr note of a veery.
Veeries, hermit thrushes, wood thrushes and robins—the resident thrushes of Beech Hill. All but robins seem shy and secretive, dull brown birds rarely making an appearance. They’ll perch quietly and watch you through the foliage, keeping barely out of sight and flitting away at the last minute. They tend to reserve their miraculous songs for when they’re deep in the echoing woods.
But today I got a good look at a veery.
Cedar waxwing.
Possibly we’d gotten near its nest. The bird seemed interested in Jack particularly, sat on a limb near us and sized us up with its flashing black eyes. The day was dim, and the photos consequently have some grain in them. But its by far the nearest I’ve ever come to a veery.
» Listen to a veery’s song (Beech Hill, 01 June 2010).
And thereafter other birds started showing up: grosbeak, field sparrow, tree swallow in the fog. Singing hermit thrush, singing cardinal, singing titmouse. And over our heads at the edge of the fog sailed the silhouette of osprey.
It looked like the sun might emerge as we were returning to the pickup. But no. Gray and fog persisted all day—a day when I saw only one species of bird (European starling) that I hadn’t also listed at Beech Hill.
Hairy woodpecker (female).
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Ovenbird (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
4. American goldfinch
5. Chestnut-sided warbler
6. Common yellowthroat
7. Veery
8. Eastern towhee
9. American redstart (voice)
10. Alder flycatcher
11. Herring gull (voice)
12. Nashville warbler (voice)
13. Song sparrow
14. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
15. Savannah sparrow
16. Tufted titmouse (voice)
17. Tree swallow
18. Yellow warbler (voice)
19. Rose-breasted grosbeak
20. Northern flicker
21. Eastern phoebe
22. Hermit thrush (voice)
23. Common raven (voice)
24. Northern cardinal (voice)
25. Field sparrow
26. Chipping sparrow
27. Osprey
28. Blue jay (voice)
29. Cedar waxwing
30. White-throated sparrow (voice)
31. Gray catbird (voice)
32. Mourning dove
33. Blue-headed vireo (voice)
34. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
35. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
36. American robin
37. Black-capped chickadee
38. Hairy woodpecker
39. American crow
Field sparrow.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern flicker, osprey, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
