Yellow-rumped warbler.
Just as I stepped out of my pickup in the Rockville Street parking lot, I heard the high-pitched scree of a broad-winged hawk coming from directly overhead. Didn’t see the bird in the little patch of blue above me, so I waited for another call. There it was, higher and farther distant. Definitely a broad-wing, not an impostor jay.
Nashville warbler.
But beyond this little early thrill, it soon seemed like just another morning hike up Beech Hill on a beautiful summer day. Sunny, cool, still. The usual species made themselves heard and/or seen as Jack and I ascended the upper wooded trail. Then as we neared the summit, a few extras showed up—including a couple warblers silently hunting for insects near the trunks of trees. First a black-and-white. Then a yellow warbler. Then a redstart for the second straight day.
I spotted the redstart—a first-year male, looked like—flitting among the spruce boughs where I’d also seen one yesterday. Same bird perhaps. We stopped so I could look for other species at what’s been a pretty good hot spot for the past week or two. Did also see a phoebe and a red-breasted nuthatch.
But not until we’d made the circuit and returned to the little spruce grove did things really get interesting. Stopped again. Stood quietly, dog and I. Saw more warblers: a yellow-rump, a Nashville, a Tennessee—first Tennessee warbler I’ve seen on the hill all year, in fact.
Tennessee warbler.
After we’d stood there about five minutes a loud hum announced the arrival of a female ruby-throat. She hovered near one of those pink flowers not eight feet distant, but instead of diving in to dine she eyed me askance as if thinking, “Wait a minute, something’s not right with this picture.” I didn’t dare lift my camera for what would’ve been an amazing photo (had I been able to focus that close) for fear of shooing her away.
But then she moved to a more distant flower, so I slowly raised my camera—which caused her to zip up to a spruce twig, where finally I snapped her portrait.
I thought a count of thirty species was pretty good. Then, descending the lower wooded trail, I heard the voices of both hairy and pileated woodpeckers, and the startling song of a creeper. And finally, just as we stepped back in the parking lot, the unfamiliar peep notes of a tanager atop a tree. Perhaps a young or molting tanager—the bird looked positively moth-eaten.
Most memorable, though, were the warblers. Eight in all this day. And of them all, only two did I hear singing (yellow and yellowthroat). The rest simply flitted and darted and pecked about the trunks and branches and leaves of the lush mid-summer trees, perhaps driven somewhere in the backs of their brains by flickering visions of fall.
Ruby-throated hummingbird (female).
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Broad-winged hawk (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo
3. American goldfinch
4. Black-capped chickadee
5. American crow
6. Hermit thrush (voice)
7. American robin (voice)
8. Eastern towhee
9. Gray catbird
10. Common yellowthroat
11. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
12. Cedar waxwing
13. White-throated sparrow (voice)
14. Song sparrow
15. Black-and-white warbler
16. Mourning dove
17. Yellow warbler
18. American redstart
19. Eastern phoebe
20. Red-breasted nuthatch
21. Savannah sparrow
22. Tufted titmouse (voice)
23. Blue jay
24. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
25. Northern flicker
26. Yellow-rumped warbler
27. Nashville warbler
28. Alder flycatcher
29. Tennessee warbler
30. Black-throated green warbler
31. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
32. Brown creeper (voice)
33. Pileated woodpecker (voice)
34. Scarlet tanager
Elsewhere
35. Northern cardinal
36. Herring gull
37. European starling
Scarlet tanager.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, broad-winged hawk, brown creeper, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, European starling, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern flicker, pileated woodpecker, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, Tennessee warbler, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
