Another lovely morning hike—a fair morning this day, with cool temps and fragrant air. A good selection of birds, including a couple warblers, a couple woodpeckers, a couple nuthatches, and a hawk.
I only got a glimpse of the hawk through a window in the summit spruces, and the first thing I noticed was its sideburns, and I thought I might have one of only a few peregrines I’ve ever seen on the hill. Only later, after I took a close look at the photos (and then checked in with a bird ID expert pal) did I realize it was not a falcon at all. Turned out to be a Broad-winged Hawk—the commonest hawk in Beech Hill Preserve.
Still I neat sighting though. (So that’s why it was so quiet up there for a change!)
(Earlier, at home, I heard the Carolina Wren again. Love that sound.)
Beech Hill List Beginning at 7:21 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Great Crested Flycatcher (v) 2. Blue Jay (v) 3. Red-eyed Vireo 4. American Crow* (v) 5. Black-capped Chickadee 6. American Goldfinch** (v) 7. Hairy Woodpecker 8. Eastern Wood-pewee (v) 9. White-breasted Nuthatch 10. Red-breasted Nuthatch 11. Tufted Titmouse** 12. Eastern Towhee 13. Gray Catbird 14. Cedar Waxwing 15. Chestnut-sided Warbler 16. American Redstart 17. Common Yellowthroat (v) 18. Broad-winged Hawk 19. Song Sparrow 20. American Robin 21. Herring Gull* 22. Eastern Phoebe 23. Pileated Woodpecker (v) 24. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Had a couple decent-sized rain showers pass by this morning about the time we’d usually hit the trail, so dog and I waited a few hours. Didn’t hit the wet trail until late morning. No rain, but a thick fog.
Amazingly, I got a few bird photos. Oddly, no crows. Luckily, a couple of redstarts appeared in a flock of small birds following a gang of chickadees.
All in all, a lovely soupy day.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 10:29 a.m., I hiked most trails.
1. Hermit Thrush 2. Black-capped Chickadee 3. American Redstart 4. Red-eyed Vireo 5. Tufted Titmouse (v) 6. Gray Catbird 7. Eastern Towhee 8. Song Sparrow 9. Common Yellowthroat 10. American Goldfinch** (v) 11. Red-breasted Nuthatch 12. American Robin* 13. Blue Jay (v)
Elsewhere
14. Mourning Dove 15. Herring Gull 16. American Crow 17. Rock Pigeon 18. Carolina Wren (v)
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
Cool again this morning, but breezier and clearer and warming up in a hurry. Birds about—reawakened after yesterday’s soaking rain. A few returning species, a few familiar friends, nothing particularly outlandish.
But the blue of the sky and a few juvenile bluebirds and late summer’s yellowish sun-color… It all added up to a pretty miraculous morning.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 7:33 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed Vireo** 2. American Crow* 3. American Goldfinch** 4. Black-capped Chickadee 5. Eastern Towhee 6. Blue Jay 7. Veery (v) 8. Eastern Wood-pewee** (v) 9. Ovenbird 10. Gray Catbird 11. Common Yellowthroat 12. Northern Flicker 13. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v) 14. Broad-winged Hawk 15. Song Sparrow 16. Savannah Sparrow 17. Cedar Waxwing 18. American Redstart (v) 19. White-breasted Nuthatch (v) 20. Eastern Bluebird 21. Tufted Titmouse 22. Chipping Sparrow 23. Turkey Vulture 24. Herring Gull* 25. Downy Woodpecker (v)
Elsewhere
26. Carolina Wren 27. Mourning Dove
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
