Olive-sided flycatcher.
Jack and I encountered no mammals on our early Beech Hill hike today [I forgot to mention the rabbit we encountered a couple days ago], aside from one pair of humans who began following us up the open trail as we were heading back over. I noticed them right after I’d noticed the olive-sided flycatcher.
Chestnut-sided warbler.
I didn’t know it was an olive-sided at the time—I knew it was a flycatcher, and I knew it wasn’t a phoebe, so I thought perhaps it was an alder or great crested, but it seemed odd just sitting there out in the open on an exposed branch of a little birch. Only later, when I blew up a couple photos I took, could I make the ID. It’s the only olive-sided flycatcher I’ve seen on Beech Hill. In fact, it’s only the second olive-sided flycatcher I have memory of ever seeing. They’re not exactly rare, but they’re not very common. I mean, they’ve been seen on the hill before. But still.
In all I saw or heard five flycatchers up there today: phoebe, alder, great crested, pewee, and olive-sided. Of all on my Beech Hill list, only a kingbird is missing. (The general Beech Hill list also includes yellow-bellied, a bird I’ve never seen.) But I suppose where you find flies, you find flycatchers. And there were plenty of flies around—in particular, black flies and mosquitos. But I don’t mind a few bug bites if it means flycatchers, warblers, and the like.
There were warblers a-plenty also—including a first-of-year (for me) pine warbler. This was one of the few birds I’ve actually stalked this year. I heard its trill from a curve in the lower wooded trail and decided to confirm my suspicion, so Jack and I ventured off-trail, followed an old stone wall, found which tree the song was coming from. Guess what kind of tree? Yep, a pine. I got some distant photos of it, then watched for a while as it flitted from pine to pine.
Pine warbler.
Also noteworthy was a squawking raven that flapped clear around the summit in full view of dog and me as if it were circling us. And of course the voice of the eastern wood-pewee—the last bird on today’s list, a little flycatcher with what happens to be one of my favorite calls of all the resident species here on the 44th parallel.
Thank you, flies.
Addendum: Tonight is calm and mild. The nightly chorus, I notice, has changed from peepers to wood frogs. And crickets.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6:45 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Ovenbird*
2. Common yellowthroat*
3. Red-eyed vireo
4. Chestnut-sided warbler*
5. Downy woodpecker (v)
6. Black-throated green warbler*
7. Veery
8. Northern flicker (v)
9. Black-capped chickadee*
10. American crow*
11. Canada warbler
12. American redstart*
13. Gray catbird* (v)
14. Mourning dove*
15. Eastern towhee
16. Blue jay*
17. Black-and-white warbler
18. American robin*
19. American goldfinch*
20. Tufted titmouse (v)
21. Yellow warbler*
22. White-throated sparrow
23. Alder flycatcher
24. Ruby-throated hummingbird (v)
25. Song sparrow*
26. House finch*
27. Field sparrow
28. Hermit thrush (v)
29. Eastern phoebe*
30. Barn swallow
31. Savannah sparrow
32. Red-winged blackbird*
33. Nashville warbler (v)
34. Wood thrush (v)
35. White-breasted nuthatch* (v)
36. Brown-headed cowbird (v)
37. Hairy woodpecker
38. Olive-sided flycatcher‡
39. Common raven
40. Pine warbler*‡
41. Great crested flycatcher (v)
42. Eastern wood-pewee (v)
Elsewhere
43. Northern cardinal (v)
44. Herring gull
45. Laughing gull
46. Osprey (v)
47. European starling
48. House sparrow
49. Rock pigeon
50. Canada goose
51. Cedar waxwing (v)
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
‡First-of-year bird
