Dog and I hiked up through such a cool and breezy and luscious wood this morning. Also rather quiet. Birds don’t sing or call so much when they’ve got youngsters to raise (as I’ve certainly mentioned before), and the numbers were low this day—but what I heard and saw in the nearly silent trees (as usual) moved me.
Birds occupied the open summit and airy barrens also—but they were drowned out by the sound of machines. Noise, I should say. It’s a pet peeve, I must say—the horrible metallic whines and groans and growls and clanks and screeches of humanity. A plane flying low above, an annoyingly loud tractor across the valley.
If we humans are so smart and creative, how come we can’t engineer machines that make no noise—or at least very, very little? Too often I find myself yearning for quietude.
Some days aren’t so bad, though. Maybe tomorrow will be like that (it’s supposed to rain).
Beech Hill List
Starting at 7:05 a.m. EST (8:05 DST), I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed Vireo (v)
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. Tufted Titmouse
4. Downy Woodpecker
5. Northern Cardinal
6. American Goldfinch
7. Eastern Wood-pewee
8. White-breasted Nuthatch
9. Veery
10. Gray Catbird
11. Eastern Towhee
12. Alder Flycatcher
13. Mourning Dove
14. Cedar Waxwing
15. Song Sparrow
16. Common Yellowthroat
17. Barn Swallow
18. American Robin
19. Common Raven
20. Blue Jay
Elsewhere
21. Herring Gull
22. Canada Goose
23. Osprey
24. Eastern Phoebe
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year
Tags: alder flycatcher, American goldfinch, American robin, barn swallow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Canada goose, Cedar waxwing, common raven, common yellowthroat, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-breasted nuthatch
