Ovenbird.
I rose with the daylight to leave myself time for breakfast before my bird walk at Pleasant Point Nature Preserve in Cushing, a Georges River Land Trust property. I’d never been to the preserve—65-acres of mixed woodland donated by many landowners to keep it forever wild—and it was a nice little plot of land. Implausibly, a couple dozen people showed up, including (thankfully) my expert birding friends Don and Douglas (each, I daresay, more expert than I).
Least flycatcher.
En route down the peninsula, I saw several active birds, among them a (first-of-year) mockingbird in Thomaston. Arrived about a half-hour early to find Douglas and Don there already. A gray day. A couple of magnolia warblers were calling from the road. A junco trilling in the distance. A yellowthroat nearby.
Once everyone had gathered, we started down the freshly blazed trails. We heard the songs of a number of warblers—black-throated green, ovenbird, parula, black-and-white—and Don called a few in with his iPad, giving everyone some good looks. Blue-headed vireos also responded. A loon flew over, and an osprey. Also a raven. We caught a glimpse of a hermit thrush and heard a blackburnian warbler (my first of the year). We could hear geese. And we got a nice look at a hairy woodpecker. I think everyone enjoyed it. The GLRT has some great people doing good work.
Right away on my return, I grabbed Jack (who had waited at home), and we headed for Beech Hill. Despite the late hour, it proved a fruitful hike. Many warblers calling. Got a decent photo of a least flycatcher—and of a couple ovenbirds. I love ovenbirds. They’re declarative, but secretive. They’re feisty, but shy. You can hear them just about anywhere in the Maine woods in season, but it’s uncommon to see them.
Common yellowthroat.
The ringtone on my cell phone is the call of an ovenbird.
After our fruitful hike, coming back down the lower wooded trail, I heard crows harassing a raven. And I caught a glimpse of a large, lumbering shape off beneath the trees—a woodchuck, apparently leaping away from a trunk. I’d never before seen a woodchuck up there.
About half-way down, we’d stopped so I could look at a vireo (thinking it might be a first red-eyed, but it wasn’t), when both dog and I heard the soft beats of wings above us and looked up to see an osprey flying over from behind us, low to the canopy.
This evening, I stepped out before the rain for some air and spotted a couple small dull-colored birds hopping about the trunk of one of the big oaks out back. Sparrows? Thrushes? Ovenbirds? I snuck in for my binoculars and took a closer look: thrushes. But not hermit thrushes (no hint of rust on their tails, nor any tail-wagging) nor veeries (too many splotches on their breasts). They were a plain olive tone but had interesting facial markings with distinctive buffy cheeks. I had a thought and looked them up in Sibley’s. They were Swainson’s thrushes. A life bird for me.
Woodchuck.
In evening, after it began raining lightly, again I heard the flight song of a woodcock.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 11 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Ovenbird
2. Common yellowthroat
3. Black-throated green warbler
4. Eastern phoebe
5. American crow
6. Northern parula
7. Chestnut-sided warbler
8.Rose-breasted grosbeak
9. Song sparrow
10. Least flycatcher
11. Eastern towhee
12. American redstart
13. Black-and-white warbler
14. Herring gull
15. Veery
16. Yellow warbler
17. Black-capped chickadee
18. White-throated sparrow
19. Blue jay
20. Gray catbird
21. Savannah sparrow
22. Field sparrow
23. American robin
24. Hairy woodpecker
25. Blue-headed vireo
26. Mourning dove
27. Magnolia warbler
28. American goldfinch
29. Turkey vulture
30. Common raven
31. Hermit thrush
32. Great crested flycatcher
33. Nashville warbler
34. Osprey
Pleasant Point Nature Preserve List
Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hung around the trails.
White-throated sparrow
Ovenbird
35. Dark-eyed junco
Magnolia warbler
Black-and-white warbler
Blue jay
Common yellowthroat
Nashville warbler
Osprey
American crow
Herring gull
36. Common loon
Black-throated green warbler
Mourning dove
Common raven
Northern parula
Chestnut-sided warbler
Hermit thrush
37. Canada goose
Blue-headed vireo
38. Blackburnian warbler
American robin
39. Hairy woodpecker
American goldfinch
Elsewhere
40. House finch
41. Northern cardinal
42. Common eider
43. Northern mockingbird
44. Double-crested cormorant
45. Common grackle
46. Red-winged blackbird
47. Ring-billed gull
48. European starling
49. Rock pigeon
50. Swainson’s thrush
51. American woodcock
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, Canada goose, chestnut-sided warbler, common eider, common grackle, common loon, common raven, common yellowthroat, dark-eyed junco, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, great crested flycatcher, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, least flycatcher, magnolia warbler, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, northern parula, osprey, ovenbird, red-winged blackbird, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, Swainson's thrush, turkey vulture, veery, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
