Osprey.
I awoke last night to the sound of a gentle rain. And maybe a bit of breeze. The rain was pattering on the roof beyond my bedroom window. Knowing it was raining, and that the rain represented the fringeds of Hurricane Earl, I let myself sleep in some, and when I finally rose, there was still a bit of drizzle falling. Got dressed, made breakfast. Then the rain ended, and the sky began to clear. So despite it being a college football day, Jack and I headed for Beech Hill.
Gray catbird.
Whereas the overcast persisted for about five or ten minutes, it lifted quickly and I looked up to see a clear division in the sky: blue sky to the southeast, clouds to the northwest. Very cut-and-dried. For such a big, well-delineated storm, Earl turned out to be kind of a dud.
But when the sun came out, it got humid right away. Not overly much rain fell, but enough to evaporate in the sun’s brilliance. Not many birds calling, though I did catch sight of small silent songbirds by using the chickadee trick.
Speaking of the chickadee trick—I don’t know if it’s the chickadees that are luring the other songbirds along with them, perhaps because of their love of vocalization, or if perhaps all the little passerines are hanging out together anyway, and it’s just the chickadees that are so vocal. Whatever the case, the first little gang of black-caps came with about a half-dozen silent red-eyed vireos. (For the record, I heard no vireos call this morning.)
Common yellowthroat.
Coming up the last rise, Jack and I heard human voices at the summit. Sure enough, a grandmother and her two grandsons were there already—so soon after a hurricane—and the older grandson was flying a kite in the stout westerly post-hurricane breeze. This sort of put a damper on any bird sightings at the summit, but we headed over and heard blue jays and a goldfinch and saw an osprey. Coming up the trail was a young couple with two little boys. And a half dozen young adults had just arrived at the Beech Hill Road side.
By then I’d counted only twelve bird species, whereas it occurred to me that I’d met up with thirteen individual humans.
No more additional until we headed down again into lower wooded trail, when I heard more chickadees—and again saw other birds flitting up there in the canopy along with them. And I heard the unmistakable musical call of a brown creeper (though I never saw the bird) and I spotted a couple of young chestnut-sided warbler.
That was about it. Nice to hear brown creepers, though—they’ve got a unique song.
Split sky.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 10:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American crow (voice)
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Common yellowthroat
4. Gray catbird
5. Red-eyed vireo
6. White-throated sparrow
7. Cedar waxwing
8. Song sparrow (voice)
9. Osprey
10. Eastern towhee (voice)
11. Blue jay (voice)
12. American goldfinch (voice)
13. Brown creeper (voice)
14. Chestnut-sided warbler
Elsewhere
15. Herring gull
16. Northern cardinal
Waxwing moon.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, brown creeper, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, northern cardinal, osprey, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow
