17 February 2025

Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Sunset trail, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 January 2011.

Sunset trail.

When I awoke it was snowing. Lightly. Plows going by. Within a couple hours, it’d let up. Maybe three fresh inches of snowfall. Crows chasing among the oaks.

Hawk and crow, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 January 2011.

Hawk and crow.

Later in the morning, the crows began to holler like crazy. I took the cue, stepped out, looked up. Sure enough, a hawk perched there in an oak limb overhanging the parking lot, surrounded by hollering crows. With Jack following me enthusiastically, I dashed back inside and upstairs for my camera and stepped out on the deck. But I wasn’t stealthy enough—the hawk saw me immediately and took wing. I tried for some photos but got only a blur.

Took care of errands late in the day—ring-billed and herring gulls in town—then headed with dog to Beech Hill. Apparently no one had driven into the parking lot today—although I did see the tracks of a dog and a human coming down the trail. At the gate, the tracks appeared doubled, and about a hundred yards up, I found the place where they’d turned around. We were first to walk the rest of the open trail.

Beech Nut, Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 January 2011.

Beech Nut.

Coincidentally, a scrap of clearing had just crested the southern horizon as we reached the summit. Dipping below the cloud-cover, the sun bathed the hill in an angular pink-orange light. With the clearing edge came a gusty wind. Pretty cold up there.

We hung around the summit for a while admiring the rare, colorful light. Then back-tracked, headed down. Just before the parking lot we met little Lucy and her human caretakers. They thanked us for packing down the trail before them.

Stepped out tonight, just now, to check the sky—and heard mallards quacking over in dark Clam Cove.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

No birds seen or heard on the hill today.

Elsewhere

1. American crow
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Red-tailed hawk
4. Ring-billed gull
5. Herring gull
6. Mallard

Sunset, from Beech Hill, Rockport, Maine, 27 January 2011.

Sunset, from Beech Hill.

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Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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