American crow.
It might be my favorite month, October. Not too hot, not too cold. Fragrant. Full of color and change and a sense of delicious urgency. Also a few birds are still moving through—as I confirmed during my hike with Jack today.
Black-capped chickadee.
Beech Hill had visitors, it being a nice, calm Saturday. Human ones, I mean. But also avian ones: yellow-rumped warblers (of course), crows, chickadees, etc. Didn’t see or hear any sparrows today, oddly, but I did watch a merlin zip through the spruce grove at the summit, trying for a ‘rump or two. (Didn’t snag one.)
Otherwise, perhaps the most interesting sighting was the big flock of geese in a large field inland a few miles.
Also, the Longhorns beat the Sooners for a change.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped chickadee**
2. Yellow-rumped warbler
3. American crow*
4. Downy woodpecker (v)
5. White-breasted nuthatch (v)
6. Merlin
7. Blue jay (v)
Elsewhere
8. Herring gull
9. Rock pigeon
10. Canada goose
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Canada goose, downy woodpecker, herring gull, merlin, rock pigeon, white-breasted nuthatch, yellow-rumped warbler
