Spruce.
Today I confirmed that I can ID another chip note. That was cool.
Beech Nut.
The day was cool, too. Somewhat overcast to start with, but the sky soon cleared. Chickadees were flitting about out back, plus the resident cardinal. As the day progressed and the sun climbed, the air grew warmish. Not much of a breeze. I worked until mid-afternoon then jumped on my bike. Couldn’t help but notice a large—towering, really—cumulus cloud in the west, and about two-thirds of the way through my ride, the sky clouded over again, but no rain came.
Still, by the time Jack and I arrived at Beech Hill for our daily hike, the sky had grown maybe half-cloudy. Lumbering clouds in the west, sun overhead, layers of clouds over the bay. Vireos in the woods, as usual. Chickadees and towhees calling, distant crows, waxwings zipping about in the canopy.
Nearing the upper fields, I heard the chip note of a yellowthroat. (Pretty easy to ID.) Then the clear note of an alder flycatcher. (This one I learned earlier this year.) Then a sharp, quick, slightly downward-turning chip! from some berry brambles up ahead. Right away I thought, That’s a chestnut-sided warbler.
Chestnut-sided warbler.
You’d think I’d know their chip note by now, considering chestnut-sides are perhaps the most abundant bird on the hill in high season. But theirs is fairly non-descript. A lot of warblers have a quick, sharp chip—including yellow and black-and-white warblers. I’ve come to know the softer chip! of a yellow-rump pretty well. An ovenbird has a sharp, loud, distinctive chip. But only this year have I heard enough of the chips of chestnut-sides to think I knew what I was listening to. Alas, the bird never made an appearance.
Phoebe up top. Song sparrow in the hedgerow. No hint of the growls of a chupacabra. The setting sun lit the summit, illuminating a beautiful coastal view.
Coming back down, I heard that chip! again—different location, different bird, same chip! But this time I caught sight of the little warbler. Sure enough, a chestnut-sided.
I can tell a cardinal by its chip. I can tell chickadee, titmouse, house finch. The chuck! of a red-winged blackbird. The quay! of a hermit thrush. I can tell song, savannah, and white-throated sparrows. (Oddly, I heard un unknown chip from the summit spruce grove today then saw the bird: a chipping sparrow, of all things. Guess I don’t know those yet.) Rose-breasted grosbeaks have an unmistakable twisted chee-ip!
Inland hills.
True, chip notes don’t give you much to go on. You probably need a good ear to distinguish the differences in pitch, timbre, duration. But if you hear them often enough, apparently, you can actually recognize a bird by its briefest of calls—just as others of its species can.
After dark, some light rain arrived. Temperatures somewhere in the 60s (F). I hear the high today in my ol’ hometown in Austin, Texas, was 107. They’re setting crazy-hot records there this year. I suppose that might have something to do with why I’ve lived in Maine some thirty-some-odd years.
Chip!
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:45 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
3. Eastern towhee
4. Cedar waxwing
5. Gray catbird
6. American crow
7. Common yellowthroat (voice)
8. Mourning dove
9. Alder flycatcher
10. Song sparrow
11. Chestnut-sided warbler
12. Eastern phoebe
13. American goldfinch
14. Chipping sparrow
15. American robin (voice)
16. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
17. Hermit thrush
Elsewhere
18. Northern cardinal
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow
