Morning wood (no, not that kind).
Up early. Warm early—for the third straight day. But Hurricane Earl should brush the coast tomorrow afternoon or evening, so next week we should have some nice sleeping weather for a change.
For some reason this morning I thought to count my paces up and over the hill. You might recall—very doubtful you will recall—I counted paces from the far parking lot up and over on the return trip down the lower wooded trail back on 17th July. Total paces: 3,447. Well, today I counted my steps while ascending the upper wooded trail (a shorter route) and ended up with 3,105. So the approximate total paces I’ve been walking every day up and down Beech Hill is somewhere around 6,552.
Wow. No wonder my aging heels hurt at random times during the day.
Common yellowthroat (female).
Sun. Warmth. Humidity. Steam. Quiet. Heard random gangs of chickadees in the periphery. Heard catbird and yellowthroat (buddy species). Heard waxwings—and surprised a flicker on the trail. Also heard a robin for the second straight day. And, at the first opening up by the lower fields, spotted a hummingbird buzzing away to the north.
But nothing much else. No crow, no goldfinch. Jays, yes. Sparrows, three species. But not much else. And my only decent photo was of a female yellowthroat early in our hike.
So I was figuring it to be just one of those sultry, lazy, uninteresting birding days—until we entered the lower wooded trail. I’d listed fifteen species by then, is all. But right away a pewee made it sixteen. Then I heard the repeated call of a hairy woodpecker. Seventeen. Then, finally, I heard the voices of both crow and goldfinch, one right after the other. Nineteen. And as we neared the parking lot, the black-billed cuckoo. Twenty.
That seemed fine to me, twenty—but as we got a hundred paces or so from the end of our hike, a little pod of chickadees moved through. I scanned the shady hardwoods. Three or four chickadees, and a couple other birds. Two phoebes, appearing out of nowhere. And also a red-eyed vireo, eyeing us with its red eye. (The dimness was not conducive to clear photos, alas.) And then two or three redstarts, flitting around together like butterflies.
I waited a good long time for the perfect redstart photo, but it was not to be.
In afternoon—when the temperature reached nearly 90 degrees (F), I might just note—I walked Jack around to the side yard and noticed four or five grackles hanging around in the understory up the hill here. Seems to me evidence of impending fall migration.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Common yellowthroat
4. Gray catbird
5. Eastern towhee (voice)
6. American robin (voice)
7. Northern flicker
8. White-throated sparrow
9. Cedar waxwing (voice)
10. Blue jay (voice)
11. Ruby-throated hummingbird
12. Song sparrow
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Mourning dove
15. Red-eyed vireo
16. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
17. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
18. American crow (voice)
19. American goldfinch (voice)
20. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
21. Eastern phoebe
22. American redstart
Elsewhere
23. House sparrow
24. Herring gull
25. Common grackle
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, mourning dove, northern flicker, red-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow
