Downy woodpecker.
I forgot it was the first of August until we’d finished more than half our hike this morning, Jack and I. Must’ve been because I was so bedazzled by the morning itself. Cool, comfortable, with few deer flies but occasional cicadas, with lush, unkempt brambles along the trails and scattering, rambling young birds everywhere on the open slopes.
And a few surprises.
Ruby-throated hummingbird.
The first surprise came as we climbed the upper wooded trail, when I heard the distinctive alarm note of a veery—for the first time in at least a couple weeks. I even saw the bird itself, dodging behind clumps of leaves. But then I got distracted by the second surprise: a downy woodpecker starting in on a limb right above and before us. I got a couple photos as the little bird hammered and pecked and preened.
The third came as I was watching a group of phoebes flitting about the summit—a young family, I figure, though I’m not sure where their nest was. (Possibly somewhere on Beech Nut itself.) One bird kept wanting to perch on a stalk of roof grass, or the chimney, and sing. Meantime, great gangs of young waxwings were zipping joyously through the luxuriant air like kids at play. And suddenly I saw one of the phoebes, in flight, dodging an aerial assault by a hummingbird. The hummer won, as they usually do, then flew quickly down and began drinking from a patch of flowers on the souther slope.
Penobscot Bay from Beech Hill.
The fourth surprise came as we’d begun our return ascent, right above the Beech Hill Road gate. I heard a loud, sharp chip! coming from the little patch of woods there. I recognized it as the alarm not of a rose-breasted grosbeak. It took a little while to find the bird, but there it was—a female protecting nestlings (or fledglings). It’d been weeks since I’d seen or heard a rose-breasted.
The fifth surprise came as I attempted a photo of the grosbeak and noticed a gorgeous geometrical spider web high in the limbs of the hardwoods there. Not sure I’ve ever seen a spider web that high.
Young sparrow at Beech Nut.
My sixth moment of astonishment arrived as we started back down the lower wooded trail and I heard another chip! note that sounded familiar. At once a small bird fluttered up onto a small shady branch directly in front of us. Before I even got a good look I knew from its behavior what it was: an ovenbird. Hadn’t seen one of those in a while, either.
The seventh surprise came as I’d paused in the wood to see if I could spot a pair of vocal nuthatches beeping around in a grove of old oaks, along with some likewise vocal chickadees. I did spot one—and about the same time heard a whistling call rather higher pitched than the chickadees’. And there on the trunk was a brown creeper. Had not seen a creeper up there since last winter, I bet, and this one was near. I wanted its photo.
But it’d gotten interested in a section of trunk on the other side of a leaf cluster. I ducked but had no good view. So I backed up while ducking and dipping and peering upward, and just as I was about to reach a nice look through my viewfinder, my left foot came down squarely on a round, loose stone, and it kicked out from under me, and I sprawled over backward and landed hard on a fallen limb. Didn’t hurt much, but it cost me my photo. At least Jack was amused.
And that was my eighth surprise.
Eastern phoebe on the sod roof.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American crow (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. Common yellowthroat
4. American goldfinch
5. Black-capped chickadee
6. American robin
7. Eastern towhee
8. Gray catbird
9. White-throated sparrow
10. Cedar waxwing
11. Downy woodpecker
12. Chestnut-sided warbler
13. Alder flycatcher
14. Veery
15. Song sparrow
16. Eastern phoebe
17. Northern flicker
18. Savannah sparrow
19. Blue jay
20. Herring gull
21. Ruby-throated hummingbird
22. Mourning dove
23. Yellow warbler (voice)
24. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
25. Chipping sparrow (voice)
26. White-breasted nuthatch
27. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
28. Rose-breasted grosbeak
29. Hermit thrush
30. Ovenbird
31. Brown creeper
Elsewhere
32. House sparrow
Ovenbird.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, brown creeper, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern flicker, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
