Beech Nut.
Before I’d completely awakened, I heard the steady rain. A wet, chilly morning. So instead of taking our customary early hike, Jack and I went early to work, and I buckled down at my desk. Got a lot done, too, somehow. And the rain passed, and the pavement dried—but not Nature’s skin. A thick fog moved in, in fact, by the time I dragged myself away from the ol’ desk and we headed up the open Beech Hill trail.
Birch.
So foggy. I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t see Beech Nut at all until coming up the last hundred yards of trail. And still—so still. The feeling I had while climbing the trail was that some godly being had spread a gigantic, invisible blanket over all the world. Silence occupied all directions. I saw a little brown bird flit across the trail. A white-throated sparrow, I figured. Then I heard a goldfinch flying over, invisible in the cloud. Then I saw a song sparrow. A solitary savannah sparrow flitted up the misty trail ahead of us. A *** of sparrows.
Not until we approached the summit did I first hear faint traces of the foghorns off the local shores, along with the mew! of a catbird and the wheep! of a towhee. These two vocal birds couldn’t have been more than a hundred yards distant, but they sounded a quarter-mile away.
A chickadee called nearby; a raven croaked far away. I heard the chip! of a yellow-rump and thought I heard the voice of a robin, but I only heard it once and so can’t say for sure.
We didn’t head far down the wooded trail—but we got far enough to year the chip note of a yellowthroat and the sharp pip! of some other warbler that I managed to see in the dimness but not clearly enough to identify.
As we came back down the open trail a kestrel suddenly swept up the trail in front of us and veered away. I could only imagine it was hunting the savannah or one of the other sparrow species that hang out in the brush along either side of the open trail. When it saw Jack and me, of course, it veered up and away.
The open trail.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I walked the open trail.
1. White-throated sparrow
2. American goldfinch (voice)
3. Song sparrow
4. Savannah sparrow
5. Gray catbird
6. Eastern towhee (voice)
7. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
8. Common raven (voice)
9. Yellow-rumped warbler (voice)
10. Common yellowthroat (voice)
11. Unknown warbler
12. Kestrel
Elsewhere
13. American crow
Tags: American goldfinch, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
