Gray catbird.
I know where there’s a catbird’s nest: near the Beech Hill Preserve parking lot off Beech Hill Road. There’s a robin’s nest near there, too. And an alder flycatcher’s. And a white-throated sparrow’s.
Eastern towhee (female).
I can tell you, too, just where a yellow warbler’s nesting: along a hedgerow bordering a new-mown field down the eastern slope of the hill. I know this because I spotted one of the mating pair today with a caterpillar in its bill perched in a birch near the upper end of the wooded trail. This morning that same tree yielded a singing eastern towhee, a calling alder flycatcher, a pair of American goldfinches, and a cedar waxwing. All at the same time.
A pair of common yellowthroats have a nest along the trail just north of the summit spruce grove. Jack and I have stood motionless as the male and female both chipped and dipped and flitted all around us, their beaks crammed with insects and spiders. Meantime, up amid the spruces themselves, I’ve seen towhees—both sexes—with chock-full bills. And along the open trail, of course, savannah sparrows chip and duck and scold with mouths full of grub for their young.
It’s that reproductive time of year, if you’re a bird.
American goldfinch (female).
Another interesting benefit of walking the same trails every morning for weeks: you get to know certain, individual birds. Like the chestnut-sided warbler that’s invariably calling from the same tree along the upper wooded trail. Or the first-year male American redstart, with the odd call that ends in two loud chimes, that hangs around the shady stretch toward the top of that trail. Or the savannah sparrow with the moth-eaten head-feathers; the yellowthroat with the white speck in front of it’s left eye; the chipping sparrow that sings from the conifers along the road; the red-eyed vireo at the curve in the trail in the woods, with the come-hither whistle in its repertoire. And, of course, that one deaf yellowthroat with the alien-sounding call—still calling this morning, mateless, from a thicket along the open trail.
I guess what I’m trying to communicate, not for the first time: you get sprinkled with gifts when you bother to pay attention.
Savannah sparrow atop Beech Nut.
Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Mourning dove
2. Northern flicker (voice)
3. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
4. Red-eyed vireo
5. Ovenbird (voice)
6. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
7. American robin
8. Chestnut-sided warbler
9. Eastern towhee
10. Gray catbird
11. American goldfinch
12. American crow (voice)
13. Canada warbler (voice)
14. Cedar waxwing
15. Alder flycatcher
16. Veery
17. Common yellowthroat
18. Eastern phoebe (voice)
19. American redstart (voice)
20. Song sparrow (voice)
21. Savannah sparrow
22. Yellow warbler
23. Hermit thrush (voice)
24. Blue jay (voice)
25. Chipping sparrow (voice)
26. White-throated sparrow (voice)
27. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
28. Hairy woodpecker
29. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
30. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
31. Black-and-white warbler (voice)
32. Tufted titmouse (voice)
33. Field sparrow (voice)
34. House finch (voice)
35. Tree swallow
Elsewhere
36. House finch
37. Herring gull
38. House sparrow
Savannah sparrow.
