Pileated woodpecker.
An overcast morning. Chilly, but a T-shirt was fine. Pretty quiet at the trailhead—just the subtle cu! notes of a black-billed cuckoo. A couple of them, actually. Then a chickadee. Then a crow.
Not a lot of wind. Some. A few leaves are turning, and things are starting to smell a little like fall.
Common yellowthroat (female).
Coming around the turn by the boulder, I heard a catbird’s mew! and and squee! of a robin. And then some faint tapping. A woodpecker, or nuthatch, or other bark-loving bird. It was coming from up ahead maybe a hundred feet or fifty yards or so. We walked slowly and quiet, Jack and I, until I saw movement. Big movement, in fact. Wide, black-and-white winged movement. A pileated woodpecker, flapping a few yards onto the trunk of a dead tree.
It was way too dim for a photo, but I tried anyway through a hole in the greenery. I could see the red crest. Then the bird called a loud short call of the kind pileateds do. And suddenly I could see another flash of a red crest lower on the same trunk. A pair of birds.
Way too dim for a photo. But I took a few anyway.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
On up the hill, we ran into the usual white-throated sparrows and towhees and heard the quay! of a red-eyed vireo. Also the sounds of goldfinches flying over—they always seem to be flying over. “Perk chicory,” is what I imagine them saying as they fly.
A couple savannah sparrows coming down the open trail. Toward Beech Hill Road, I heard a nuthatch and a titmouse. I thought I heard a field sparrow’s chip, but it wasn’t distinctive enough to count.
Back at the summit, amid the spruce grove, I heard the chips of what I thought was a yell0w-rumped warbler. I soon confirmed this. I also heard chips I didn’t recognize—and snapped a couple photos of a vireo, another Philadelphia, I’m pretty sure.
Nothing new down the lower wooded trail. I thought I might hear or see more brown creepers, but I didn’t.
Penobscot Bay.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. American crow (voice)
4. Gray catbird (voice)
5. American robin (voice)
6. Pileated woodpecker
7. Eastern towhee
8. White-throated sparrow
9. Red-eyed vireo
10. Northern flicker (voice)
11. American goldfinch
12. Mourning dove
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Blue jay
15. Song sparrow
16. Common yellowthroat
17. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
18. Tufted titmouse (voice)
19. Cedar waxwing
20. Yellow-rumped warbler
21. Eastern phoebe
22. Philadelphia vireo
Elsewhere
23. Herring gull
24. Northern cardinal
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, Philadelphia vireo, pileated woodpecker, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
