In fast, efficient summer, new things happen every day. Today, most conspicuous (to me), was the blooming of the milkweed. A week ago, the only milkweed I saw were very young plants, but now they’re full grown, everywhere, and blooming.
Also, more birds are moving around—and others have disappeared. No Tree Swallows for several days now. No chippies in the spruce grove. Yellowthroats frantically feeding. And catbirds. And towhees. And Yellow Warblers.
Day lilies popping up all over the place. And a new dragonfly every day, seems like.
Never a dull moment at this time of year.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked the open trail.
A sunny, warm, kind of glorious morning. Spring at last. A breeze rose in the fully-fledged trees, and the resulting hush obscured some birdsong—but I heard enough (and saw enough) to have a happy hike with dog.
Portrait of chestnut-sided Warbler.
Happiest occurrence: A Black-billed Cuckoo zipped up to a branch directly in front of us along the wooded trail and posed for photos. I rarely get to photograph these shy birds.
Back home, a curiosity: the call of a kingfisher where I’d never heard one before. Weird.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked the open trail.
Under an overcast sky, before the rain, Sarah and I hiked up through the woods—and topped yesterday’s number of species. On the way back down, in the lower woodlands, we stood for a while as nearly a dozen species called and flitted and sang.
I figured all the activity was an attempt to get things done before the rain.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 10:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
Bird Report is an intermittent record of what's outside my window in Rockport, Maine, USA (44°08'N latitude, 69°06'W longitude), and vicinity. —Brian Willson
