Eastern phoebe (hovering).
The day dawned clear. The air warmed swiftly up. It held a little humidity. Felt like summer.
Early, the usual species sang around my place. (I probably shouldn’t admit that the house finch is starting to fray my nerves.) Phoebes hollering our back again. A joyful-sounding yellow wabler across the road.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
In my afternoon bike ride—during which I got quite a little sun on my nose—I heard many singing birds, including multiple chipping sparrows, and happened to see an osprey flapping off toward the bay across Clam Cove.
Jack and I didn’t make it to Beech Hill until rather late in the day. We were alone up there—well, other than a fresh population of deer flies and mosquitoes—but for the familiar singers. First I heard was ovenbird. Next was red-eyed vireo. In fact, I heard four vireos singing at once near the trailhead. They seem to like a woodland of tall trees with few low branches.
This got me thinking about habitat. And how Beech Hill has a convenient mix of woods and brushy meadows and open grasslands. I’m sure that has something to do with why I love it up there.
In the woods today were ovenbirds and veeries and chickadees and hermit thrushes. In the scrubby vegetation were catbirds and towhees and yellowthroats. Up top were waxwings and goldfinches, song sparrows and savannah sparrows. Robins and phoebes and yellow warblers like to hang around the edges. And you can hear crows from just about everywhere. (Also towhees, frankly.)
American robin.
One cool occurrence today happened just after I’d been tracking a yellow-rump as it flitted through the upper branches of one of the summit spruces. The bird had just flown, and I turned around to see one of the resident phoebes flutter off the rock porch wall of Beech Nut. It headed over to a field post but didn’t sit there long enough for me to get a photo—and instead flew nearer to a point just above the tips of the tall grass and simply hovered there for about five seconds, looking back at dog and me.
Back home, standing on my deck, I spotted a silent redstart lurking in the near branches of an oak. Too dim for photos, alas.
Tonight, I stepped out again and heard the twin (postponed) fireworks shows from Camden, to the north, and Thomaston, to the south. Stereo. The air had cooled. Good sleeping weather. Above, a spray of stars.
Beech Hill List
beginning at 6 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Ovenbird (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
4. Eastern towhee
5. Veery (voice)
6. Black-capped chickadee
7. American crow
8. Cedar waxwing
9. Song sparrow
10. Gray catbird
11. Yellow warbler (voice)
12. Mourning dove
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Yellow-rumped warbler
15. American robin
16. Eastern phoebe
17. Common yellowthroat (voice)
18. Hermit thrush (voice)
Elsewhere
19. House finch
20. Tufted titmouse
21. Northern cardinal
22. House sparrow
23. Herring gull
24. Chipping sparrow
25. Osprey
26. Mourning dove
27. American redstart
Tags: American crow, American redstart, American robin, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
