Maple leaves.
At about 4:30 a.m. (EDT), I awoke from a dream. The world outside was quiet but for the soft few hoots of a great horned owl. Silence. Silence. The hoots of an owl. Silence. Silence. Silence. An owl’s hoots.
I did get back to sleep, and then, a couple-three hours later, found myself listening to a harangue of crows—must’ve been a dozen of ’em out back hollering at something. By the time I realized it might’ve been the owl I’d heard earlier and pulled on some clothes and dashed out onto the deck, I could hear only the fading caw-caw-caw-caw! as they escorted whatever it was away.
Not a lot of in-town activity, but while riding my bicycle this afternoon I did catch sight of a grackle flying low across a lawn in Rockport Village. Sort of a surprise.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
We walked Beech Hill again today in late afternoon, Jack and I. Again sunny, again still, again warmer than you’d expect. A number of cars in the parking lot. A number of yellow-rumped warblers in the turning yellow foliage, itself soaked in the ochre of the afternoon sun. Otherwise, the usual jay, crow, and sharpie. OK, so maybe sharp-shinned hawks aren’t a customary sighting on the hill necessarily, but they fly across in good numbers at this time of year. Two sailed over today—the second one raising a frantic little cloud of ‘rumps down the southern slope.
We stopped at various points along the open trail to listen. I heard a downy woodpecker down across the eastern fields. A song sparrow down there, too. I saw a herring gull against the far water in the distance. A lot of ‘rumps.
Returning, I spotted a good sized bird in somewhat undulating flight in the direction of the sun. Through binoculars—and through a bright halo of sunlight—I saw it was a flicker. As soon as I made the ID (from it’s white backside), the bird lit on the tip of a small hardwood and gave a flicker’s cry.
Heard a white-throated sparrow—then saw another sparrow flit across into a trailside thicket. I tried for a photo, didn’t get much of one. However, checking the photo later confirmed it as a field sparrow, not the white-throat I’d expected.
Down in the parking lot, while taking pictures of colorful, afternoon-lit maple leaves, I heard the high insistent notes of golden-crowned kinglets in the canopy directly overhead of us. One’s call in particular was especially strident. I got him in my binocs—and just then, from another direction, heard the faint beeps of a white-breasted nuthatch.
Tonight the sky seemed especially starlit. The waxing moon set brightly beyond tree limbs going bare. The air temperature dipped rapidly. Bright Jupiter rose.
The open trail.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Yellow-rumped warbler
2. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
3. Blue jay (voice)
4. American crow (voice)
5. Sharp-shinned hawk
6. Downy woodpecker (voice)
7. Song sparrow
8. Herring gull
9. American flicker
10. White-throated sparrow
11. Field sparrow
12. Golden-crowned kinglet
13. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Elsewhere
14. Great horned owl
15. Rock pigeon
16. Tufted titmouse
17. Common grackle
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, common grackle, downy woodpecker, field sparrow, golden-crowned kinglet, great horned owl, herring gull, northern flicker, rock pigeon, sharp-shinned hawk, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
