Savannah sparrow.
Overcast and breezy this early morning—much like the day before yesterday, except somehow chillier, somehow damper, somehow nearer to fall. Jack and I got to the hill a little late, as we have the past few days, but we found ourselves alone. Not many birds calling along the wooded trails. Widely intermittent bird calls. And most of them mere chip notes.
Black-capped chickadee.
Then, about two-thirds of the way along the upper wooded trail I heard the call of a veery. Veeries as a nesting species are not at all uncommon on Beech Hill. They’re vocal in spring, their fountainy songs lending a lovely, ethereal backdrop to the blooming woodland. But once they’ve nested, they go suddenly silent. Today’s bird was the first I’d heard in weeks. Peering into the greenery, I saw it. Lovely.
Crickets sang. The wind rushed through the boughs of trees. Rain was forecast for later in day.
No birds at all in the summit spruces, oddly. But I did hear robins at several points on the hill. That made two thrushes today. And there were plenty of sparrows—white-throateds, songs, and savannahs.
Wait, savannahs?
I hadn’t seen a savannah sparrow in three days, an observation that had me convinced they’d moved on to some great savannah sparrow staging area, from which they’d migrate south in a week or two or three. But today, as Jack and I came around the first curve in the open trail, one flew swiftly up ahead of us low to the ground, as is their habit. Then another sent it’s staccato chip note our way from behind a bush. Then it and one or two others flitted up the hill and dipped quickly into clumps of grass. Perhaps a family of stragglers? Perhaps birds traveling from some other hill up north?
As it happens, the savannahs were the last species I saw until we’d nearly returned to the Rockville Street trailhead when, passing through the brambles near the vernal pool, I heard familiar warbler-style chipping from a blackberry thicket: a family of chestnut-sideds stocking up on grub.
The rain came, sure enough. And it was a big one, an extended downpour—in fact, the hardest rain I can remember since last year.
Beech Nut.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Cedar waxwing (voice)
2. Blue jay (voice)
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. Gray catbird
5. American crow (voice)
6. Veery
7. American robin (voice)
8. White-throated sparrow
9. Song sparrow (voice)
10. American goldfinch (voice)
11. Common yellowthroat
12. Eastern towhee
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Chestnut-sided warbler
Elsewhere
15. Northern cardinal
16. Herring gull
17. House sparrow
18. Rock pigeon
Blackberries.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, herring gull, house sparrow, northern cardinal, ray catbird, rock pigeon, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, veery, white-throated sparrow
