I awoke early to the sound of rain. Then I went back to sleep and awoke to sunlight streaming through the blinds. A nice surprise—although the sun did play hide-and-seek behind layers of clouds. Because of a nervous, gusty wind, though, the roads soon dried up, and after some holiday desk work, I took a bicycle break.

Plenty of roadside birds. Crows, waxwings, gulls, doves, pigeons, cardinals, jays, titmice, chickadees. In Rockport Village, a cardinal even burst into full-fledged song. I got the feeling the birds are gathering cues from the diminishing photoperiod and changing atmosphere to help them time their fall migration—much as I’ve reserved a room and am checking ferry schedules for my trip to Monhegan in a few weeks. So I can watch them migrate.

The sky had gone cloudy again by the time Jack and I hit the Beech Hill trail in late afternoon. I heard a few waxwings right away but not much else behind the rushing sound of the wind—a full, aromatic wind that seemed to whip around between the south and southeast. Chipmunks chirped in the periphery. Coming up the first ascent, while checking the waxwing perch, I saw instead a female northern harrier flying low up the hill. This prompted me to increase my pace in hopes of catching sight of it up toward the summit, but it was not to be.

In fact, I saw more humans and dogs up there today than bird species. Four dogs, eight humans, three birds. (Well, I did hear a cardinal as we left the parking lot, which I’ve listed as a fourth.) We humans seemed pleased to be out in such a mild, mysterious wind at the top of a coastal hill. Rain showers were moving by at some distance inland, but they didn’t interfere.

The rain finally arrived late tonight, a minute ago. Still a little breeze. A nervous wind.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

1. Cedar waxwing (voice)
2. Northern harrier
3. American crow (voice)
4. Northern cardinal (voice)

Elsewhere

5. Herring gull
6. Rock pigeon
7. Mourning dove
8. American goldfinch
9. Tufted titmouse
10. Black-capped chickadee
11. Laughing gull
12. Blue jay

Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, herring gull, laughing gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern harrier, rock pigeon, tufted titmouse

This entry was posted on Monday, September 5th, 2011 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Lists, Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.