18 April 2025

The Loud Ones

Thursday, May 18th, 2023
Ovenbird, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 18 May 2023.
Ovenbird.

’Tis the season of the Ovenbird. This perky little terrestrial-nesting warbler—with his stylish orange mohawk—nests in a dutch-oven-style nest of leaves on the sun-dappled forest floor and declares its existence from a tree limb twenty or thirty feet above: Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher!

They also chase each other with great speed, zipping between trunks, a frantic sort of demonstration of their territorial imperative. But mostly, these mid-May days, their voices echo loudly in the woodlands.

Otherwise notable this lovely (if nippy) morning: a first-of-hill Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Such a fun time of year.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:18 a.m. sun time (7:18 DST), I hiked all trails.

1. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
2. Ovenbird**
3. Black-throated Green Warbler** (v)
4. Brown Creeper (v)
5. Song Sparrow
6. American Goldfinch
7. Black-and-white Warbler**
8. Gray Catbird
9. Red-bellied Woodpecker** (v)
10. Eastern Towhee
11. Chestnut-sided Warbler
12. Wood Thrush (v)
13. Hairy Woodpecker (v)
14. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
15. Black-capped Chickadee
16. Red-eyed Vireo (v)
17. Nashville Warbler (v)
18. Common Yellowthroat (v)
19. American Crow*
20. Black-throated Blue Warbler
21. Yellow-rumped Warbler
22. White-throated Sparrow
23. Field Sparrow (v)
24. Yellow Warbler (v)
25. Mourning Dove* (v)
26. American Redstart (v)
27. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
28. Chipping Sparrow
29. American Robin*
30. Eastern Bluebird
31. Northern Parula* (v)
32. Eastern Phoebe**
33. Savannah Sparrow
34. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
35. Tufted Titmouse (v)

Elsewhere

36. Herring Gull

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

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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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