In the 50s (F) when dog and I headed up the trail this morning. Quiet in the shadows, but activity up in the sunlit edges. A good, cool, sun-soaked hike, with flitting warblers, juvie bluebirds, and a glimpse of a (first-of-year) Swainson’s Thrush.

Truly, you can feel it. The coming pull of fall. The diminishing daylight, the dewy, bittersweet aroma in the air, the prime directive of migration among wild birds.

Stirrings.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:44 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. Red-eyed Vireo
2. American Crow*
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. Eastern Towhee
5. Gray Catbird
6. American Goldfinch**
7. Common Yellowthroat
8. Cedar Waxwing
9. Hairy Woodpecker (v)
10. Song Sparrow**
11. Swainson’s Thrush†
12. Northern Flicker (v)
13. Red-breasted Nuthatch
14. American Redstart
15. Yellow-rumped Warbler
16. Black-throated Green Warbler
17. Eastern Bluebird
18. Purple Finch
19. Chipping Sparrow
20. Northern Cardinal** (v)
21. Eastern Phoebe
22. Hermit Thrush

Mammals

Eastern Chipmunk (v)

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year