8 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘common raven’

Pileated

Thursday, October 12th, 2023
Pileated Woodpecker (female), Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 12 October 2023.
Pileated Woodpecker (female).

A similar start to yesterday’s hike—rather late up the main trail, overcast, damp, nippy, calm—but with a little sun brightening things up after a while. The sun also warmed things up. And birds were active.

Notable were a pair of larks, a loon in overflight, the croaks of a raven—and a rare glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker.

Pileateds themselves aren’t rare in the woods, but they’re good at making themselves scarce. Often you’ll hear their loud, distinctive call, and sometimes you can track one by its especially loud hammering. But I do love to get a peek at these lovely birds. Today’s female posed for a photo.

Beech Hill List
Starting at 8:04 a.m. EST (9:04 DST), I hiked all trails.

1. Song Sparrow (v)
2. Blue Jay
3. Yellow-rumped Warbler**
4. American Crow*
5. American Goldfinch
6. Common Yellowthroat (v)
7. Hairy Woodpecker
8. Northern Flicker
9. Common Loon
10. Horned Lark
11. Tufted Titmouse (v)
12. Eastern Towhee (v)
13. Black-capped Chickadee
14. Hermit Thrush
15. Brown Creeper (v)
16. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v)
17. White-breasted Nuthatch
18. Common Raven (v)
19. Pileated Woodpecker

Elsewhere

20. Herring Gull
21. Northern Cardinal

Mammals

Eastern Gray Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Corvids

Saturday, October 7th, 2023
Common Raven, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 07 October 2023.
Common Raven.

Our ceiling on this morning’s hike was a gray overcast, and the air was damp and breezy. The forecast rain would not arrive until later in the day, though, so we’d keep comparatively dry, dog and I. And there was no shortage of bird species—including three corvids.

Of the three—crow, jay, and raven—the most notable was the solitary raven flying above us, accompanied by a single crow. (The crows were many and vocal, apparently gearing up for their annual October convention on the hill.)

Beech Hill List
Starting at 7:19 a.m. EST (8:19 DST), I hiked all trails.

1. American Crow*
2. White-breasted Nuthatch** (v)
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. American Robin (v)
5. White-throated Sparrow (v)
6. American Goldfinch
7. Yellow-rumped Warbler
8. Northern Flicker (v)
9. Blue Jay (v)
10. Song Sparrow
11. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v)
12. Brown Creeper (v)
13. Common Raven
14. Gray Catbird (v)
15. Red-eyed Vireo

Elsewhere

16. Mallard
17. Herring Gull

Mammals

Eastern Chipmunk (v)

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Flitting Things

Sunday, October 1st, 2023
Black-capped Chickadee, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 01 October 2023.
Black-capped Chickadee.

This morning dog and I hiked a calm, cool quiet, early autumn trail. Migration was going on—many yellow-rumps, a kinglet, White-throated Sparrows—but after four sweet days on an island, it felt mostly like being back amid close family.

Best family photo? A close-up of a resident chickadee.

[On our morning hike, I dropped my Garmin device. Didn’t notice till we got back to the truck. So in afternoon, I went back without Jack—and, by golly, someone had found it and left it on a bench at the hut. Added a raven.]

Beech Hill List
Starting at 8:03 a.m. EST (9:03 DST) and again at 1:09 (2:09), I hiked all trails.

1. American Goldfinch (v)
2. White-throated Sparrow
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. Hermit Thrush
5. Yellow-rumped Warbler
6. Hairy Woodpecker
7. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (v)
8. American Crow*
9. Gray Catbird
10. Eastern Towhee (v)
11. Blue Jay** (v)
12. Song Sparrow
13. Eastern Bluebird
14. Tufted Titmouse (v)
15. White-breasted Nuthatch** (v)
16. Common Raven

Elsewhere

17. Mallard
18. Northern Cardinal (v)
19. Herring Gull
20. House Sparrow (v)

Reptiles

Garter Snake

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



3IP Logo
©1997–2025 by 3IP