Common yellowthroat (female).
A stunningly sun-soaked, fetchingly warm First of July. I spent the middle part of it working on my book, all the while imagining another long, sweaty bike ride like yesterday’s. Come mid-afternoon, I was ready. Just in case, I checked the weather radar—and saw a line of showers approaching maybe twenty minutes away. Damn. But it looked to be slow-moving, so I grabbed my camera and rushed with Jack to Beech Hill.
Mourning dove.
We started up the trail at a quick pace, but within a couple of minutes I felt raindrops. Within a couple more, it began to rain a little steadier. Remembering my recent drenching (and subsequent camera concerns), I decided to turn around, and we raced back to the pickup—just as the rain began to come down hard.
Whew.
But it was early yet, and I still had hope. A couple hours later, the showers had passed, and whereas the radar showed more on the way, they looked fairly distant. We took off again.
No sprinkles this time. In fact, we seemed to encounter the usual post-rain surge in bird activity. Warblers and thrushes, vireos and catbirds were calling from the understory. Crows cawed from somewhere. Towhees were about. And as we reached the upper fields—where I got a look at a dramatic gray-orange sky—all sorts of birds showed up, including two I hadn’t listed lately (singing black-and-white warbler and rose-breasted grosbeak). We stopped so I could photograph a female yellowthroat, and a pair of mourning doves came in for a landing on a nearby fence rail.
Eastern towhee.
At the summit, we met a couple fellow hikers, and I had a nice chat. Song and savannah sparrows up there also. But then some rain we’d seen over toward Chickawaukie Lake began to arrive, and we hurried away separate trails. (That is, Jack and I took one and they took the other.)
It rained as we rushed down the lower wooded trail, but it didn’t rain all that hard. Still, it was loud enough in the canopy that I couldn’t ID any species other than a few roving bands of chickadees—and, in the oak grove, a solitary wood-pewee.
Tonight, the sky is mostly clear again, and the moon is nearing full.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m, I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Ovenbird (v)
2. Chestnut-sided warbler (v)
3. Red-eyed vireo (v)
4. Common yellowthroat*
5. Veery
6. American redstart (v)
7. Gray catbird
8. Eastern towhee
9. Herring gull*
10. American goldfinch* (v)
11. Black-capped chickadee (v)
12. American crow*
13. Song sparrow* (v)
14. Yellow warbler* (v)
15. American robin (v)
16. Eastern phoebe
17. Mourning dove*
18. Black-and-white warbler (v)
19. Rose-breasted grosbeak (v)
20. Hermit thrush (v)
21. Blue jay (v)
22. Savannah sparrow
23. Eastern wood-pewee (v)
Elsewhere
24. House finch (v)
25. Tufted titmouse (v)
26. Northern cardinal (v)
27. Laughing gull
28. Double-crested cormorant
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tonight's moon.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, double-crested cormorant, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, laughing gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, yellow warbler
