Orb-weaver's web, lower wooded trail.
The morning dawned cool, with dry air but a damp understory. The trailhead seemed especially inviting. Green and gold, with angular morning sunlight and deep shadow. Not a lot of deerflies. Kind of quiet, though, in the wake of last night’s thunderstorms.
In fact, I heard only a handful of birds actually singing: red-eyed vireo, cedar waxwing, black-capped chickadee, yellow warbler, common yellowthroat. Pretty sure that was it. The rest, I had to ID from their chip notes—or actually spot them flitting around in the vegetation or open air.
But the trail seemed lush and summery and miraculous. How lucky are we to live on this tilted water planet?
Upper wooded trail.
Then again, it wasn’t an especially photo-friendly day. First I spotted a hairy woodpecker up a tree maybe twenty feet away. But it kept just out of view, and the light was dim anyway. Not a great photo. Then came a sudden phoebe—only about twelve feet distant, and on a bare limb, and in a patch of sun. By the time I’d focused it had flown. Then a kingbird, of all things, on a snag right out in the open. Again, it flew just as I was ready to release the digital shutter.
That was interesting, actually: it was only the second eastern kingbird I’ve seen on the hill all year, and it was hunting in the open fields to the east of the summit. As it flew, I trained my fieldglasses on it—and it had a hummingbird in pursuit, not a foot or two away.
At the summit, a red-breasted nuthatch was beeping around in the spruces. Down at the Beech Hill Road parking lot, jays were flitting around—oddly very silent.
Coming back down the lower wooded trail, our feet stepped over miniature dams and bars made of twigs and leaves and acorns—evidence of last night’s storm runoff. I heard no singing hermit thrush, as I usual have lately. No wood-pewee. At one point I did ask Jack to wait, and we paused in the cool air, and crickets sang, and a cicada. And there above us on an oak limb was another phoebe, a woodland bird. I watched it catch a few flies. It didn’t call at all, just flitted around silently.
All in all, a cool, pleasant, silent sort of morning.
Hairy woodpecker.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Cedar waxwing
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. American goldfinch
5. American crow (voice)
6. Hairy woodpecker
7. Eastern towhee
8. Common yellowthroat
9. White-throated sparrow (voice)
10. Eastern phoebe
11. Eastern kingbird
12. Ruby-throated hummingbird
13. Song sparrow
14. Mourning dove
15. Red-breasted nuthatch
16. Savannah sparrow
17. Yellow warbler (voice)
18. Gray catbird
19. Blue jay
20. Yellow warbler (voice)
21. Northern flicker (voice)
Elsewhere
22. House sparrow
23. Herring gull
24. Northern cardinal
25. Rock pigeon
Lower wooded trail.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern kingbird, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah saprrow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
