30 March 2023

Posts Tagged ‘sharp-shinned hawk’

Blue, Blue

Monday, December 26th, 2022
EastEastern Blue bird (fem/imm), Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 26 December 2022.ern Blue bird (fem/imm), Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 26 December 2022.
Eastern Blue bird (fem/imm).

Warmer than yesterday morning, and less windy. Also clearer. Twenty degrees (F) to start, with calm air in the woods. Icy trails, angling sun, a few woodland birds (including a random sharpie fly-by). And, at the summit, bluebirds.

Common Raven, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 26 December 2022.
Common Raven.

First pair of bluebirds appeared just as dog and I were headed down the open hillside. Heard a yellow-rump there also. The sky was blue, blue.

On our return ascent, the pair of bluebirds had somehow multiplied into at least twenty birds. They were everywhere. Late December, sun, blue sky, temps in the twenties—another bluebird day. (Also a few goldfinches and ’rumps.)

A final fillip on our final decent: a solitary, croaking raven, circling in the blue, blue sky.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:13 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)
2. Pine Siskin (v)
3. Sharp-shinned Hawk
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. Eastern Bluebird
6. American Crow (v)
7. Yellow-rumped Warbler
8. Tufted Titmouse (v)
9. American Goldfinch
10. Common Raven

Elsewhere

11. Golden-crowned Kinglet (v)
12. Northern Cardinal (v)
13. Herring Gull

Mammals

American Red Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Promise

Thursday, October 27th, 2022
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 27 October 2022.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

The sun shone this morning. Fog and rain and clouds had dispersed—well, most of ’em—and the brightness of our star rendered the landscape bright and colorful and squint-worthy. Birds were about, too—but, oddly, fewer sparrows. (Perhaps the recent socked-in days brought them down to browse for food.)

Two hawks, two corvids, two finches, two thrushes, two woodpeckers. A kinglet, a creeper, still quite a few yellow-rumps.

Most notable, perhaps, were the bluebirds fluttering around the spruce grove at the summit. Those, and the kinglets. And the promise of more birds to come.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:05 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. American Crow
2. Yellow-rumped Warbler
3. Blue Jay
4. Hairy Woodpecker
5. American Robin
6. Hermit Thrush
7. Black-capped Chickadee
8. American Goldfinch
9. Eastern Bluebird
10. Northern Flicker
11. White-throated Sparrow
12. Purple Finch
13. Song Sparrow
14. Herring Gull
15. Sharp-shinned Hawk
16. Cooper’s Hawk
17. Brown Creeper
18. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Elsewhere

19. Northern Cardinal

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Big Birds

Sunday, October 16th, 2022
Hermit Thrush, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 16 October 2022.
Hermit Thrush.

I call ’em “big birds”—hawks and vultures and gulls and ravens and other large species that I see in the sky overhead. This morning’s fun hike with an old pal, for me and Jack, was a long but fun one. And it included several big birds.

Peregrine Falcon, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagles (three!), Red-shouldered Hawk, Osprey… The day began a bit foggy, cleared up, got warm and clear, and glowed with fall color. During tomorrow’s cloudiness, I’ll remember.

(Here’s a photo of a small bird: a lovely Hermit Thrush.)

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:03 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. American Crow**
2. Yellow-rumped Warbler
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. Blue Jay (v)
5. Northern Flicker
6. White-throated Sparrow
7. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (v)
8. American Robin (v)
9. Eastern Towhee (v)
10. Eastern Bluebird
11. Hermit Thrush
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
13. American Goldfinch (v)
14. Purple Finch (v)
15. Peregrine Falcon
16. Sharp-shinned Hawk
17. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
18. Hairy Woodpecker
19. Tufted Titmouse (v)
20. Osprey
21. Bald Eagle
22. Red-shouldered Hawk
23. Common Raven
24. Turkey Vulture

Elsewhere

25. White-breasted Nuthatch (v)

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



3IP Logo
©1997–2023 by 3IP