The last bird on my list this lovely cool mostly overcast morning was a lifer: a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

Other fun things happened, too: a few quiet, wandering warblers; a little gang of turkeys, an oriole, first yellow-rump in a while—but the flycatcher took the cake.

Oddly, I neither heard nor saw an Alder Flycatcher today, but then this little flitting, fly-catching bird down in the woodlands (where yellow-bellies like to hang out) began to flutter off its perch to snatch flies out of the air, then return to its perch, flicking its tail slightly. The little tail-flick, plus the yellowish wash, plus the woodland habitat pretty much confirmed my ID.

A lifer day is always a good day—but would’ve been a good day anyway.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:33 a.m., I hiked most trails.

1. Red-eyed Vireo** (v)
2. Black-and-white Warbler
3. Tufted Titmouse
4. American Goldfinch
5. American Robin
6. Downy Woodpecker (v)
7. American Crow*
8. Eastern Wood-pewee (v)
9. Hermit Thrush (v)
10. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
11. Black-capped Chickadee
12. Brown Creeper (v)
13. Ovenbird
14. Wild Turkey
15. Common Yellowthroat
16. Eastern Towhee
17. Gray Catbird**
18. Northern Flicker
19. Baltimore Oriole
20. Red-breasted Nuthatch
21. Eastern Phoebe
22. Yellow-rumped Warbler
23. Song Sparrow
24. Cedar Waxwing
25. Yellow Warbler (v)
26. Blue Jay (v)
27. Herring Gull
28. Mourning Dove*
29. American Redstart
30. Chestnut-sided Warbler
31. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher‡

Elsewhere

32. Northern Cardinal

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year
‡Lifer