High-bush blueberries.
Around here, at the end of July, you can wander out in a high field somewhere and snack on blueberries. Dependably.
I’m not sure this could’ve been a more lovely day—unless you don’t like sun, warmth, shade, a breeze, the faint smell of the sea. First bird I heard was a titmouse singing out my bedside window. Then a cardinal. I heard a house finch again—not a song, a series of chip notes from (I’m pretty sure) a youngster. Song sparrows were singing, also. Crows stalked the roadside.
Gray catbird.
Got a lot of Sunday work done, then took off on a bike ride. The kind of ride with no destination. Just a ride. A ride under the sun, against—and with—a fair southerly breeze. A ride through downtown Rockland, then up through downtown Camden, then past Alderemere Farm in Rockport, then home. Heard blue jays, chipping sparrows, goldfinches, waxwings. Saw mourning doves, rock pigeons, crows, gulls, starlings. Ended up drenched in sweat and endorphins.
Then it was time for a quick Beech Hill hike with my dog.
Red-eyed vireos sing a lot. They deliver their ceaseless, rambling, discursive, phrases over and over again. Thousands of times a day. The woods were echoing with the voices of the little birds—but not much else. I did spot a towhee flitting around in the trailside undergrowth. We surprised a catbird, then I watched a pair of them for a while (at least one of them was a juvenile). And I spotted a cedar waxwing in the greenery of the upper wooded trail. In fact, this bird frequented a section very near the area I saw a waxwing yesterday with a blueberry in its beak. And then I found the source of its blueberry—a high-bush blueberry, growing in the shade. You can find several of these along the wooded trails. Their little white, bell-shaped flowers attract hummingbirds in spring, and their plump, hard berries are tasty.
Eastern phoebe.
As are the smaller, more delicate low-bush blueberries at the summit. As we approached, I heard the voices of children off the trail a bit and assumed they were snacking. At the hut, a phoebe flitted around. A gull soared overhead.
Just as we began to descend, I heard a single, sharp chip! in some brush and stopped. It turned out to be a chestnut-sided warbler. The only warbler on my list today—though at least four or five species are lurking around up there. As we got back down to a view of the summit, I looked back and spotted a little family apparently picking blueberries off the trail up there, an adult and two kids—no doubt the voices I heard. They didn’t have containers, though. Looked like they were simply snacking.
Before entering the lower woods, I paused to pick a few blueberries of my own—and a couple for Jack. I can’t think of any candy as delectable as a little handful of blueberries, right off the bush, on a sunny, late Sunday afternoon at the end of July.
When we got home, I couldn’t help but notice a large flock of laughing gulls soaring and veering low in the sky above my place. I figure there’d been a fly hatch or something, because it looked like they were feeding, and I’ve seen the go after swarms of flying ants before. I’ll never know of course (although I doubt they were snacking on berries).
And tonight, a minute ago, this side of a very starry sky, a bat is darting back and forth, soundlessly, in the general direction of where I saw the laughing gulls.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
Laughing gull.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Gray catbird
3. Eastern towhee
4. American goldfinch (voice)
5. Cedar waxwing
6. American crow (voice)
7. Black-capped chickadee
8. Hermit thrush (voice)
9. Eastern phoebe
10. Song sparrow (voice)
11. Herring gull
12. Chestnut-sided warbler
Elsewhere
13. Tufted titmouse
14. Northern cardinal
15. House sparrow
16. House finch
17. Rock pigeon
18. Mourning dove
19. American robin
20. Blue jay
21. Chipping sparrow
22. European starling
23. Laughing gull
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, laughing gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse
