Song sparrow.
Sunny and surprisingly warm this morning. Got to it, worked, clouds came—but still it was warm. So I took a quick bike ride to town and back. That’s when I got a feel of the insistence of the south wind.
Eastern chipmunk.
The clouds and wind persisted as Jack and I began our Beech Hill hike at day’s end. I managed to hear chickadees and a hairy woodpecker at the parking lot, but heading up the open hillside, about all I could hear was the wind. Might’ve heard crows or jays or flickers. Didn’t. Just the wind—well, other than a handful of yellow-rumped warblers that chipped at us from trailside brush only a few feet away before sailing off in a southerly direction.
At the summit, I spied a lone song sparrow browsing in the grass around Beech Nut. It wasn’t very shy. And returning into the wind-rush, I caught sight of the white tailfeathers of a junco.
Back at the parking lot, a chipmunk emerged from a hole at the base of a tree trunk. Everybody stopped and stared at each other for a while, and then Jack and I moved, and the chipmunk skittered back into its hole.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. Hairy woodpecker (v)
3. Yellow-rumped warbler
4. Song sparrow
5. Dark-eyed junco
Elsewhere
6. Blue jay (v)
7. Herring gull
8. American crow
9. European starling
v = Voice only
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, dark-eyed junco, European starling, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, song sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
