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
A mostly sunny morning for Captain Jack and me, but also a chilly one (temps in low–50s (F) to start). Still, a much birdier hike than in recent days.
Yellow-rumps still, late-to-migrate catbirds and towhees and thrushes and vireo. A kinglet. The usual chickadees and jays and crows. And three woodpecker species.
Most woodpeckers hereabouts don’t migrate, which makes their presence comforting in a way. Flickers will move around some in the colder months, but for several years now a few have wintered over.
I truly do appreciate our resident woodpeckers.
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:40 a.m. EST (8:40 DST), I hiked all trails.
A gray overcast greeted dog and me as we started up the main trail this morning, with chilly, windy, misty air. After a while the sky turned partly sunny—still, the wooded trails were streams from the big rains, and I slipped in the mud at one point. (No damage done.)
In such adverse conditions (possibly also an inconvenient wind direction), few birds species made themselves known. But we always seem to find delights. Like the scattering of Hermit Thrushes we startled in the woods.
They’re the commonest thrush on the hill these days, but they only sing that ephemeral song in spring‚ and they’ll be moving south pretty soon anyway.
Beech Hill List Starting at 7:32 a.m. EST (8:32 DST), I hiked all trails.
