Common yellowthroat.
Today was a gray day—not overly warm, but humid. And breezy. Decided to forgo riding my bicycle to let my arm rest (and kind of regretted it anyway), so I didn’t get out until late-afternoon, when Jack and I made the quick drive up to Beech Hill.
Eastern towhee (female).
What with the overcast sky and leafy hardwoods, the wooded trails was dark. The breeze made rushing sounds in the trees. Deer flies swarmed. Somewhere I heard the calls of chickadees—then, after a while, the mew! of a catbird and the distant caws of crows. Interesting, I thought, that the first three species of the day were sported only black or gray or black-and-white-and-gray.
About half-way up, I thought to look in the dead branches of the waxwing tree, and there were a few perched there. The wind grew stronger toward the summit, when the western fields opened up. We got hollered at by a couple of yellowthroats the last stretch of the way.
Up at Beech Nut, the wind really started to blow from the southwest. What I saw was a fog-blanketed landscape—and the fog was moving swiftly over us in the wind. I also saw a man and two kiddos picking blueberries near the hut. (This was Beech Nut’s annual free-blueberry-pick weekend.) And then, as we strolled a ways down the open trail, I saw two pairs of crows.
The crows were in the air down the southern slope, rising and falling in the wind and fog. Two would rise together, very near each other, in some purposeful dance, then dip again down behind the rise, and the other pair would rise together then dip down. We stood for a long moment so I could watch the display, one I’d never seen before. It was captivating. It looked like they were having fun, dancing in the wind and fog.
August bloomer.
As we descended, I heard the voices of a single goldfinch and a single song sparrow. Down in the dark lower woods, I heard the voices of a couple of vireos and a single wood-pewee.
Then, back at the parking lot, I heard the high whistles of a broad-winged hawk from somewhere the trees across the road.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee (v)
2. Gray catbird (v)
3. American crow
4. Cedar waxwing
5. Eastern towhee
6. Common yellowthroat
7. American goldfinch (v)
8. Song sparrow (v)
9. Red-eyed vireo (v)
10. Eastern wood-pewee (v)
11. Broad-winged hawk (v)
Elsewhere
12. Herring gull
13. Osprey
14. Mourning dove
15. Northern cardinal
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, broad-winged hawk, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, herring gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow
