Morning glade.
Yesterday I read a local news account of a mountain lion sighting in Owls Head, a couple towns down from here. I believe it. In fact, I’ve believed most of the Maine mountain lion sightings I recall in the past couple decades, several of them close by—one in Waldoboro, one in Sheepscot, one in Warren, one in West Rockport, and one a couple years ago no more than a quarter-mile from where I now sit. It was sunning on a ledge overlooking Route 1.
Common yellowthroat.
Since their extermination a century ago, the state doesn’t recognize the eastern cougar as a wild species in Maine. Not enough proof. Some folks have permits to keep the lions as “pets,” see, so maybe these sightings are escapees. Politics plays into it, for sure: if wild mountain lions are accepted as endemic, that’d mean big changes to conservation regulations, hunting regulations, a lot of regulations. Not so popular a prospect, in Maine.
Coincidentally, before Jack and I took off for Beech Hill this early morning, I found out that a friend is heading for Boulder, Colorado, for a while. Boulder is a cool place, a university town, a liberal enclave, a conservation-minded community that happens also to be the main setting of Beast in the Garden, a riveting read by David Baron about the encroachment of humans on cougars’ territory out west. “Watch out for mountain lions,” I wrote on her Facebook wall.
I wasn’t just goofing around.
Ruby-throated hummingbird (female).
All this is to say that during this early morning’s Beech Hill hike, I had big cats on my mind. Lions could’ve been lurking anywhere. They have huge territories, but they scout them in a circuit. If any happened to frequent the hill, they’d likely know Jack’s and my routine.
But I wasn’t really scared or anything. I had birds on the brain, as usual.
It was a hazy morning. I took as a good sign the little family of wild turkeys that scrambled away from my truck as we pulled into the Rockville Street parking lot. Soon after, I’d seen or heard (mostly heard) a dozen species.
Red-breasted nuthatch.
The hot spot today was the summit. As we emerged from the wooded trail into the last little open expanse before the spruce grove at the top, we were met with rollicking, eye-catching, ear-snatching activity. Song sparrows and white-throats, and an eastern phoebe. Red-breasted nuthatches in the spruces. At least one yellow-rumped warbler. Young towhees. A hummingbird, and then another zipping audibly, loudly, by my ears.
It was all very exciting (to me, if not Jack). I didn’t know whether to grab my camera or my fieldglasses.
Descending to the Beech Hill Road side, I could hardly believe my eyes: sure enough, a cat. The first cat I’ve ever seen on the hill (though I think I’ve seen cat scat). A pretty big cat, too—but not a wild one. A black domestic feline hunkered down among the blueberries.
Two swallows on the list today, for the first day I can remember: a tree swallow on the way up, a barn swallow on the way back over and down. Still no chippy (the Beech Hill Road chipping sparrow stopped singing about a week ago), but the other four revealed themselves. Coming back down the lower wooded trail, I had lions on my mind again—seemed a perfect landscape for an ambush—but ran into none. Then, in perhaps the wildest surprise just as we were about to wrap things up, I heard both a greater yellowlegs calling in overflight and a northern cardinal singing in the northeast distance. Simultaneously.
Weird.
Tell you the truth, now that I think on it, I don’t believe I need to worry about getting attacked by a cougar up there.
Red-breasted nuthatch.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Wild turkey
2. American goldfinch
3. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
4. White-breasted nuthatch
5. American crow (voice)
6. Eastern towhee
7. Black-capped chickadee
8. Common yellowthroat
9. Gray catbird
10. Cedar waxwing
11. Hermit thrush (voice)
12. Blue jay
13. White-throated sparrow
14. Song sparrow
15. Eastern phoebe
16. Red-breasted nuthatch
17. Yellow-rumped warbler
18. Ruby-throated hummingbird
19. Savannah sparrow
20. Tree swallow
21. Yellow warbler (voice)
22. Field sparrow
23. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
24. Mourning dove (voice)
25. Chestnut-sided warbler
26. American robin (voice)
27. Downy woodpecker
28. Barn swallow
29. Greater yellowlegs (voice)
30. Northern cardinal (voice)
Elsewhere
31. Herring gull
32. Greater black-backed gull
Domestic cat.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, barn swallow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, greater black-backed gull, greater yellowlegs, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, wild turkey, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
