I didn’t expect to awaken to a foggy morning today, but there it was. The fog made for a cooler ascent for dog and me, however, and when it lifted—before too awful long—things warmed up pretty quickly. But every day is its own miracle, and the bird life will always surprise.
Notable, today, might be the fact that I had four woodpeckers on my list—a fourth of my final species count. Migratory birds are still gearing up for takeoff, clearly. It’ll be happening soon enough.
Can hardly wait.
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:22 a.m. EST (8:22 DST), I hiked all trails.
1. Gray Catbird** 2. American Crow* (v) 3. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v) 4. Song Sparrow 5. Downy Woodpecker (v) 6. Northern Flicker 7. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v) 8. Pileated Woodpecker (v) 9. American Goldfinch (v) 10. Cedar Waxwing 11. Yellow-rumped Warbler 12. Common Yellowthroat (v) 13. Hairy Woodpecker (v) 14. Black-capped Chickadee 15. Blue Jay (v) 16. Eastern Wood-pewee (v)
Elsewhere
17. Herring Gull 18. Mourning Dove
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year
It was a warm one. Starting up the trail early, dog and I “enjoyed” a sort of humid room temperature. Once we got out of the shade, the air got summertime-warm in a hurry. Still, what a nice hike.
Mainly because of the variety of bird life. A vireo posed. So did a Broad-winged Hawk and a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Most interestingly, a young Cape May Warbler perched high in a summit spruce and might as well have begged to have his picture took—one of very few of the species I’ve seen up there.
In afternoon, I rode around on my bicycle in 80-something-degree (F) temperatures. Seems we get us a variety of weather around here, too.
Beech Hill List Starting at 6:45 a.m. EST (7:45 DST), I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed Vireo 2. White-breasted Nuthatch (v) 3. Blue Jay 4. Gray Catbird 5. Eastern Wood-pewee (v) 6. Hairy Woodpecker 7. Broad-winged Hawk 8. American Crow* (v) 9. Black-capped Chickadee** 10. Eastern Towhee (v) 11. Song Sparrow 12. Common Yellowthroat (v) 13. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 14. Cape May Warbler† 15. American Goldfinch 16. Downy Woodpecker (v) 17. Cedar Waxwing 18. Northern Flicker (v)
Another nippy morning—low-60s (F) to start—that warmed into a lovely late-summer day. On the hill, birds were stirring, including one species I hadn’t encountered since spring: Scarlet Tanager. I heard a high, loud, abrupt call that I didn’t recognize coming from up in the wooded canopy. Turned out to be a female tanager. (Learned another bird call today!)
