White-throated sparrow.
What a lovely morning. Partly—maybe mostly—cloudy but with sudden, bright surprises of sunlight. Still, with occasional zephyrs. Cool. Lots of bird activity at the hill.
The first to announce its presence: a hairy woodpecker calling off in the hardwoods near the parking lot. (I’d hear and/or see three or four more hairy woodpeckers this morning—though no other woodpecker species.) Next was a chickadee. (I’d hear and/or see maybe a half dozen little groups of our common tit over the next two hours.) Blue jays in the distance. And as we approached the first couple of chickadees, I spotted the bright yellow cheek patch of a black-throated green warbler feeding silently in the upper greenery.
Song sparrow (juvenile).
Farther up the hill, my attention to little flitting movements revealed a redstart, a gang of vireos, and a family of white-throated sparrows. White-throats were hiding out all over the hill.
In fact, I managed to list four sparrow species: white-throat, song, savannah, and field. A single savannah was lingering on the open trail, and a little group of field sparrows were chipping about in the thicket along the trail near Beech Hill Road.
Nearing the summit on our ascent, the sudden wingbeats of three ruffed grouse surprised Jack and me. I watched all three flutter at a low angle off into the trees, where one behaved as a mother hen might—squealing away back and forth through understory. Then we paused, as we usually do, under the spruce grove at Beech Nut, and a ruby-throated hummingbird zipped up and hovered not three feet from Jack near a single pink flower. The bird only stayed there for a second, though, before deciding it was too close to a canine, when it hurried away low and in a southwesterly direction, off behind the hut.
A red-breasted nuthatch was calling in the spruces; a white-breasted was calling down the lower wooded trail on our return. In fact, around the last little gaggle of chickadees down there, I saw not only the white-breasted, but also a couple of brown creepers and a warbler I couldn’t identify. (I also heard a both an unidentifiable warbler and finch on the hill this morning.) In the distance, two or three pewees were calling to each other.
Then, from somewhere, came the croak of a raven.
American crow.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Hairy woodpecker
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Blue jay (voice)
4. Black-throated green warbler
5. Common yellowthroat
6. Eastern towhee
7. Gray catbird
8. White-throated sparrow
9. American redstart
10. Red-eyed vireo
11. Cedar waxwing (voice)
12. American crow
13. American goldfinch
14. Ruffed grouse
15. Red-breasted nuthatch (voice)
16. Song sparrow
17. Eastern phoebe
18. Yellow-rumped warbler
19. Ruby-throated hummingbird
20. Savannah sparrow
21. Field sparrow
22. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
23. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
24. White-breasted nuthatch
25. Brown creeper
26. Common raven (voice)
Elsewhere
27. Herring gull
Beech Nut.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, brown creeper, Cedar waxwing, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, ruffed grouse, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
