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Posts Tagged ‘herring gull’
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
 Mourning doves. This morning was much like yesterday morning at Beech Hill: cool, dry, sunny, silent. The silence, though, seemed somehow deeper—as if some giant had dropped a magic cloak over the world. Birds were flitting, but subtly, not making much sound. There was little breeze (less than yesterday). Even the traffic noise down on South Street (or beyond, on Route 17) seemed muffled, distant, insignificant.
 Cedar waxwing. The only bird of note coming up the wooded trail was a lone cedar waxwing calling from a treetop. I’m not sure I’d ever before actually seen a waxwing emitting its impossibly high-pitched tseee! Seems it just opens its beak and lets fly.
Ascending the last stretch before the summit, I heard a black-billed cuckoo, but it wasn’t giving its typical song—more its single-note call. And I heard the chip notes of song and white-throated sparrows. I heard no mourning doves but happened to spot a pair snuggled against each other on a sheltered limb beneath the spruces. I heard no phoebes but happened to catch sight of one at the porch of Beech Nut. I heard no field sparrows but happened to see one at a wood-edge coming down toward Beech Hill Road.
Oddly, I neither saw nor heard a towhee until Jack and I had nearly hiked the whole hill. I finally heard one bird’s alarm note. No song. No sighting. Just an alarm note.
 Black-throated green warbler (first-year female). Perhaps the most fun bird was a female black-throated green warbler that popped magically into view near the Beech Hill Road parking lot. I watched a while as it hunted in the lower limbs of some young hardwoods there. Soon after, as we came around the bark-strewn curves at the trailhead, a woodcock burst into flight right in front of us. (Had I thought to stop and look around, I might’ve had a miraculous photo.)
I heard no mysteriously fluting hermit thrushes—but I caught the sound of a chip note. Didn’t even run into any other humans (or dogs) up there this morning.
Just a very quiet, low-key, secretive sort of day. (Although I did hear the song of a yellow warbler.)
Tonight about 11 I took Jack out to pee and looked up at the moonless sky and the scanned stars, picked out a planet or two, and got to see one long quick meteor from the Perseid shower.
 Southwest landscape. Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
3. Cedar waxwing
4. Tufted titmouse (voice)
5. American goldfinch
6. American crow (voice)
7. Gray catbird
8. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
9. Common yellowthroat
10. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
11. Song sparrow (voice)
12. White-throated sparrow (voice)
13. Eastern phoebe
14. Mourning dove
15. Savannah sparrow
16. Eastern towhee (voice)
17. Blue jay
18. Field sparrow
19. American robin
20. Black-throated green warbler
21. American woodcock
22. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
23. Hermit thrush (voice)
24. Yellow warbler (voice)
Elsewhere
25. Herring gull
26. Northern cardinal
 Two islands.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, American woodcock, black-and-white warbler, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
Posted in Lists, Observations | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
 Orb-weaver's web, lower wooded trail. The morning dawned cool, with dry air but a damp understory. The trailhead seemed especially inviting. Green and gold, with angular morning sunlight and deep shadow. Not a lot of deerflies. Kind of quiet, though, in the wake of last night’s thunderstorms.
In fact, I heard only a handful of birds actually singing: red-eyed vireo, cedar waxwing, black-capped chickadee, yellow warbler, common yellowthroat. Pretty sure that was it. The rest, I had to ID from their chip notes—or actually spot them flitting around in the vegetation or open air.
But the trail seemed lush and summery and miraculous. How lucky are we to live on this tilted water planet?
 Upper wooded trail. Then again, it wasn’t an especially photo-friendly day. First I spotted a hairy woodpecker up a tree maybe twenty feet away. But it kept just out of view, and the light was dim anyway. Not a great photo. Then came a sudden phoebe—only about twelve feet distant, and on a bare limb, and in a patch of sun. By the time I’d focused it had flown. Then a kingbird, of all things, on a snag right out in the open. Again, it flew just as I was ready to release the digital shutter.
That was interesting, actually: it was only the second eastern kingbird I’ve seen on the hill all year, and it was hunting in the open fields to the east of the summit. As it flew, I trained my fieldglasses on it—and it had a hummingbird in pursuit, not a foot or two away.
At the summit, a red-breasted nuthatch was beeping around in the spruces. Down at the Beech Hill Road parking lot, jays were flitting around—oddly very silent.
Coming back down the lower wooded trail, our feet stepped over miniature dams and bars made of twigs and leaves and acorns—evidence of last night’s storm runoff. I heard no singing hermit thrush, as I usual have lately. No wood-pewee. At one point I did ask Jack to wait, and we paused in the cool air, and crickets sang, and a cicada. And there above us on an oak limb was another phoebe, a woodland bird. I watched it catch a few flies. It didn’t call at all, just flitted around silently.
All in all, a cool, pleasant, silent sort of morning.
 Hairy woodpecker. Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Cedar waxwing
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. American goldfinch
5. American crow (voice)
6. Hairy woodpecker
7. Eastern towhee
8. Common yellowthroat
9. White-throated sparrow (voice)
10. Eastern phoebe
11. Eastern kingbird
12. Ruby-throated hummingbird
13. Song sparrow
14. Mourning dove
15. Red-breasted nuthatch
16. Savannah sparrow
17. Yellow warbler (voice)
18. Gray catbird
19. Blue jay
20. Yellow warbler (voice)
21. Northern flicker (voice)
Elsewhere
22. House sparrow
23. Herring gull
24. Northern cardinal
25. Rock pigeon
 Lower wooded trail.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern kingbird, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, red-breasted nuthatch, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah saprrow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
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Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
 Kestrel in spruce. It was a nice morning, a warm morning, and hazy, with crickets. Thanks to the early time of day, plenty of bird species made themselves known straight away—the usual suspects until we got just about half-way to the summit, when a disturbance in the brush caught dog’s and my attention.
 Kestrel on snag. First I caught a glimpse of a dark fowl stepping down the slope. A ruffed grouse, I felt sure. Then another bird exploded through the understory, headed southwest. Then I heard a faint peeping and a third bird—not a small juvenile, but possibly a juvenile—appeared for a moment or two down where I’d seen the first bird. Then a fourth exploded through the understory headed northeast. We hung around for about a minute, in case a photo was forthcoming. None was.
On up the hill as the air cleared some, leaving overhead a clear empty blue.
A black-billed cuckoo began to call off in the wood: cu-cu-cu, cu-cu-cu. Such a subtle yet insistent call. I heard another calling not long after—at least I assume it was another bird and not the original, having been trailing us up the hill.
At the summit I saw a couple mourning doves flying up over to Beech Nut. Then a third, but it didn’t look quite like the other two. And then it began to hover: a kestrel, a sparrow hawk, our smallest falcon. I watched the bird hover for a moment then head down over the hill. To the left of me, down a blueberry barren, a field sparrow sang.
 Common yellowthroat (female). As we came back up on our return trip, I saw that the kestrel was still there. In fact, it sat on the edge of Beech Nut’s sod roof. Then it fluttered up to the chimney. Then it flapped over to the spruce grove, alighting up top. By this time, the little birds had gone mostly silent.
Over the course of the next five or ten minutes, I got as many photos of the kestrel as I could. I love those little guys. This one seemed perfectly comfortable at the summit of the hill.
Coming back down the wooded trail, I heard the first all-out ovenbird song in weeks, seems like. That was a gas. Then I heard an unfamiliar warbler and stopped to check. Took at least two or three minutes to get a good look at the bird—a black-and-white warbler, singing an unfamiliar late-summer alternate song.
Finally, just as we emerged back into the parking lot, I heard the chattering call of a pileated woodpecker. That sure ended things with an interrobang.
Tonight we were visited by a luscious, raucous thunderstorm. In its wake, in the clear black dome, Jupiter hung bright in the southeast sky.
 Two islands. Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American crow (voice)
2. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
3. American goldfinch
4. Cedar waxwing
5. Eastern towhee
6. Gray catbird
7. Eastern phoebe
8. Black-capped chickadee
9. Common yellowthroat
10. Ruffed grouse
11. American robin
12. Blue jay
13. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
14. White-throated sparrow (voice)
15. Song sparrow
16. Mourning dove
17. American kestrel
18. Savannah sparrow
19. Field sparrow (voice)
20. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
21. Yellow warbler (voice)
22. Hermit thrush (voice)
23. Hairy woodpecker
24. Northern flicker (voice)
25. Tree swallow
26. Ovenbird (voice)
27. Black-and-white warbler
28. Pileated woodpecker (voice)
Elsewhere
29. Herring gull
30. House sparrow
31. Double-crested cormorant
32. Osprey
 Hovering kestrel.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American kestrel, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern flicker, osprey, ovenbird, pileated woodpecker, red-eyed vireo, ruffed grouse, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
Posted in Lists, Observations | No Comments »
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| Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson |
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