Chestnut-sided warbler.
I awoke just at dawn to steady rain. Went back to sleep. Awoke sometime later to mere drizzle. Chillier, windier than yesterday. Soggier, too. Worked in here where it was warm and more or less dry. When it looked like the rain had let up a bit, Jack and I went out for a hike. And it had let up a bit—not completely, but a bit.
Bald eagle.
The wooded Beech Hill trails were streams. Not many birds at first—even they seemed rather daunted by these last several gathered days of liquidity at our particular corner of the water planet. The wind would rock the branches of the hardwoods whose new leaves would send down a spray.
For the third straight day, though, I found myself surrounded by zipping, fairy-like hummingbirds. I’d hear their tiny, two-note alarm calls, stare in the direction of the bell-like highbush blueberry blooms, and see no hummingbirds at all. I did see some wheel around the bushes and away—and one that was hovering, feeding, but for only a split second, because then it saw me and vanished behind the sodden greenery.
Another highlight was the sudden appearance of two eagles: an immature bird and an adult. The first flew slowly over, the second flew more quickly, as the crows had noticed its passage.
In the wood I heard a least flycatcher and a scarlet tanager and a wood thrush. And as we drove way back from the hill, a large, handsome coyote loped across the road in front of us and away over a field. I stopped the car, it stopped and looked back, but it started loping again before I could grab a photo.
Still life.
By the time we got home, the sun was shining and I could see blue sky.
And just a minute ago I saw stars.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4 p.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Eastern phoebe
2. Black-and-white warbler (v)
3. Common yellowthroat
4. Veery (v)
5. Ovenbird** (v)
6. Chestnut-sided warbler
7. Black-and-white warbler (v)
8. Eastern towhee
9. American crow*
10. Black-capped chickadee
11. Gray catbird**
12. Ruby-throated hummingbird
13. Field sparrow (v)
14. Blue jay (v)
15. Herring gull*
16. Broad-winged hawk
17. Savannah sparrow
18. Song sparrow**
19. Black-throated green warbler (v)
20. American goldfinch (v)
21. Bald eagle
22. Yellow warbler (v)
23. American redstart (v)
24. Yellow-rumped warbler
25. Northern cardinal** (v)
26. Wood thrush (v)
27. Common raven
28. American robin*
29. Hairy woodpecker (v)
30. Least flycatcher (v)
31. Scarlet tanager (v)
32. Red-eyed vireo
33. Mourning dove*
Elsewhere
34. Common grackle
35. European starling
36. Rock pigeon
37. Laughing gull
38. Great black-backed gull
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, bald eagle, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, broad-winged hawk, chestnut-sided warbler, common grackle, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, field sparrow, gray catbird, great black-backed gull, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, laughing gull, least flycatcher, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rock pigeon, ruby-throated hummingbird, savannah sparrow, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, veery, wood thrush, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
