Beech Hill List Beginning at 10:45 am, I hiked the open trail.
Yellowthroat in fog.
Rained from early until mid-morning, pouring for some of it. But then Jack and I took our daily hike up a muddy foggy hill, and we encountered a plethora of bird families there.
Yep, the birds were definitely out. A bunch of ’em, too—way more than I’d expected. All their vocal interactions, for some reason, got me thinking (not for the first time) about clear communication. Modern humans don’t seem to have a whole lot of this, but birds sure do.
This was kind of a nice, calm, sunny day—well, half of it. Maybe low-50s (F). In early afternoon, just as I was comtemplating a late-season bike ride, clouds moved over, and then I didn’t feel like it anymore. So instead I worked until 4 or so, when Jack and I ran a few errands then, for some reason, ended up at Beech Hill.
Blueberry barren.
Nobody else up there today. Overcast and markedly quiet. I didn’t hear any birds or animals or people at all for the first few minutes of our hike. Finally, I heard some crows. Then, farther up the slope, I could hear some faint traffic noise in the distance. And then I heard a jay. We stopped to listen. Distant jay, distant chickadee, distant flicker—and the not-so-distant chip of a yellow-rumped warbler. In fact I saw the bird. Two of them. In the same little brushy area where I heard them yesterday.
At the summit, I could see the faraway stripe of clear sky that had moved away a couple hours before. Mount Desert Island sat blue and firm against the horizon.
Returning, I heard the notes of a finch. Looked up, and there it was, high above us, flying north. Not sure what species it was—house or purple finch maybe?—but there it was. And closer to the road, we stopped again to listen, and I heard the notes of a robin, a white-throated sparrow, and a couple more yellow-rumps. Fact is, ‘rumps were the commonest species up there when we were.
Elsewhere, doing errands, I saw several other species, including tight flocks of starlings on utility lines and a solitary cormorant at Chickawaukie Lake.
Birch.
All in all, a quiet day.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 4:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. American crow* (v)
2. Blue jay (v)
3. Yellow-rumped warbler
4. Black-capped chickadee** (v)
5. Northern flicker (v)
6. Finch (sp.)
7. American robin (v)
8. White-throated sparrow (v)
9. Golden-crowned kinglet (v)
Elsewhere
10. Herring gull
11. House sparrow
12. Rock pigeon
13. European starling
14. Double-crested cormorant
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
