Ruby-throated hummingbird (female).
To bed late. Had a fitful sleep. Rose and stumbled through the few prerequisites to the morning hike: bathroom, dress, breakfast for dog and cat, poop bags, camera battery, camera, binoculars.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
Sunny. Chilly, Not very breezy. Damp from last nights big rain.
No cars in the parking lot. Heard a vireo first thing. Then a chickadee. A waxwing. The usual.
But about half-way to the summit along the upper wooded trail, Jack and I emerged into an open stretch with blackberry brambles below and small hardwoods above. Chickadee voices were apparent, as well as the chip of a yellowthroat. We stopped. I took a scan: a couple chickadees, some other small birds flitting about the deciduous tree leaves. Warblers, looked like. Yes: a redstart, unquestionably—the fluttery flight, the flashes of yellow on wings and tail. Then a white-throated sparrow flew up to a bare branch not twelve feet away. I brought up my camera, but the sparrow flew.
Close behind us a catbird mewed. Then I saw a black-and-white warbler on a trunk in front of me, lit by the rising morning sun. Then, amid chip notes, what looked to be a juvenile yellow-rumped warbler. And suddenly, with a tut-tut, a juvenile robin flapped up to the crown of the tallest nearby hardwood. Then I heard a blue jay—all this happening within a matter of seconds, please note—and the sharp note of a rose-breasted grosbeak. Finally, unexpectedly, a phoebe hopped up onto an open branch directly in my view.
Pine warbler.
I bet we stopped there for not much longer than five minutes, and yet I listed nine species from this single location.
Soon after, I heard a veery. This was getting to be fun. And coming around to the first view of Beech Nut—where I always take a photo—the near-full moon hovered just above the hut. No new species until we got up there under the spruces, where I spotted another restart, another group of yell0w-rumps, and an unfamiliar yellow warbler with streaks on its sides. I took several photos, but only one was decent. And I couldn’t review it until my return home, when I determined it was a pine.
A red-breasted nuthatch up there, too (as there often has been lately), and at least three ruby-throated hummingbirds zipping around the spruce boughs.
Savannah sparrows again today—a single family, or perhaps a migrating group. Not much else down the open trail. So we returned up over the top to the field by the little section of wooden fence, where I heard a yellowthroat very close by. I thought I might catch a nice photo, and then I heard the hum of a hummingbird’s wings. So we stopped, and I waited for the hummer. As I waited, an alder flycatcher appeared in view. Then another. Then a red-eyed vireo. Then the hummingbird, a female, dining among some flowers. The hummer then suddenly came very close, right at the edge of the trail—too close to focus, in fact. She eyed us, clearly sizing us up, and then zipped up into the twig of a tree. I grabbed a couple photos.
American redstart.
Coming down the lower wooded trail—the woodsy wooded trail—I heard two wood-pewees. Then I heard (then saw) a hairy woodpecker and heard a white-breasted nuthatch.
Not much else until we neared the end of our hike, when I heard a faint tapping in the trees nearby. We stopped. I scanned. A female pileated woodpecker, not far away. We backtracked so I could get a photo. It seemed perfectly fitting: the pileated was the 27th species of the day. Three to the power of three. The 27th of August.
And then, nearly to the parking lot, I heard the voice of a flicker.
Fun, fun day.
(Later, while cycling, I saw a young bald eagle flapping out toward Penobscot Bay.)
Cedar waxwings.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo
2. Black-capped chickadee
3. Cedar waxwing
4. Eastern towhee
5. Common yellowthroat
6. American crow
7. American redstart
8. White-throated sparrow
9. Gray catbird
10. Black-and-white warbler
11. Yellow-rumped warbler
12. American robin
13. Blue jay (voice)
14. Rose-breasted grosbeak
15. Eastern phoebe
16. Veery (voice)
17. Song sparrow (voice)
18. Pine warbler
19. Red-breasted nuthatch
20. Ruby-throated hummingbird
21. Savannah sparrow
22. American goldfinch (voice)
23. Alder flycatcher
24. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
25. Hairy woodpecker
26. White-breasted nuthatch
27. Pileated woodpecker
28. Northern flicker
Elsewhere
29. Herring gull
30. Bald eagle
Pileated woodpecker.
