Black-and-white warbler.

Busiest day of a busy week so far. But it didn’t rain, and the sun even poked through a few times, so I managed a good bicycle ride. At one point, pumping hard along a straightaway just torn up for road construction, I spied a great blue heron flapping slowly overhead.

Song sparrow.

Late to Beech Hill, but by happy coincidence Jack and I arrived about the same time the sun did. Plenty of people moving up and down. Plenty of mosquitos. [I worry about our bats.] And quite a few birds skulking about in the brush and understory. We stuck to the open trail but I did manage to sneak up on a black-and-white warbler singing its alternate, summer song. Early in the season, this bird will flit animatedly along trunks and branches, poking about the bark; these days, the singing bird sits still, usually preening—as this one was. While moving slowly toward it, I also managed close looks at a singing veery (mostly behind a tree trunk, darn it), a female yellowthroat, and a mewing catbird.

Returning, I snapped a photo of a song sparrow with a white butterfly in its beak, but it was a little overbright, alas.

(Earlier, at home, I found what appears to have been a gypsy moth larva—a remarkably fancy, almost hypnotizing caterpillar.)

Anyway. Nice to see a little sun.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.

Caterpillar.

1. American robin*
2. Chipping sparrow** (v)
3. Ovenbird (v)
4. Chestnut-sided warbler**
5. Eastern towhee
6. American goldfinch (v)
7. Red-eyed vireo** (v)
8. Gray catbird**
9. Song sparrow**
10. Common yellowthroat**
11. Cedar waxwing
12. Yellow warbler (v)
13. Savannah sparrow
14. Black-capped chickadee
15. Veery
16. Herring gull*
17. House finch**
18. American crow* (v)
19. Black-and-white warbler
20. Downy woodpecker
21. Hairy woodpecker
22. Alder flycatcher (v)
23. Field sparrow (v)
24. Eastern phoebe** (v)

Elsewhere

25. Mourning dove
26. Rock pigeon
27. Great blue heron

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere