The bay (from Beech Hill).
For the first time this morning in I don’t remember how long, I felt chilly hiking up Beech Hill. There was a distinct nip in the air. I’d worn jeans (as usual, to keep the deer tick nymphs away) and a T-shirt and, well, I thought it was a little cold.
Two islands.
No doubt it was cloudy. Well, not entirely overcast: the occasional window of blue appeared above, but none of these clearings seemed to coincide with where the rising sun happened to be. And it didn’t take long for us to get our hearts a-beating, Jack and I, so we weren’t going numb or anything. But it was nippy. Fall-like. Time marches onward.
Right away, we heard a white-throated sparrow’s tseet! note. That had to be a first. Then chickadees. Then the usual yellowthroat, jay, catbird. (Catbirds strictly mew! at this season, or emit their raspy alarm call. None of the sweet mimicry they let fly in spring.) Then, coming around the curve by the aspens near the fair-sized glacial stone, I caught sight of some movement. No chickadees this time, just a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye.
An ovenbird. Silently checking me out. And then an alder flycatcher (or at least a flycatcher with wingbars that’s not in the neighborhood of any pewees I’ve seen up there), not three feet away from the ovenbird. That was cool. But the day is too dim for telephotographs.
Alas. However, I did get some landscapes. Or seascapes, bayscapes. the overcast, the bright eastern sun behind, the reflective qualities of water… It was a spectacular morning on Beech Hill.
A solitary female kestrel sailed away to the west above the southern grassy slope. A herring gull circled far to the south. A titmouse called near the house at the gate at Beech Hill Road. Coming back over and down the wooded trail, there weren’t as many birds as yesterday—but a flicker, a hairy woodpecker, and a cedar waxwing rounded out the list today.
A lovely morning, for sure.
Three hills.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. White-throated sparrow
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Common yellowthroat
4. Blue jay (voice)
5. Gray catbird
6. Ovenbird
7. Alder flycatcher
8. American goldfinch
9. Eastern towhee
10. Veery
11. American robin (voice)
12. Song sparrow
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Kestrel
15. Herring gull
16. American crow (voice)
17. Tufted titmouse (voice)
18. Northern flicker (voice)
19. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
20. Cedar waxwing (voice)
Elsewhere
21. Mourning dove
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, mourning dove, northern flicker, ovenbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, white-throated sparrow
