Northern Harrier (gray ghost).
Got up early, headed to the studio—still no power there. Crashing gleefully through deep snow like a teenager, I bent my truck’s skid plate and so spent about a half-hour bending and wiring that thing temporarily back in place. Called for a service appointment. Pruned and sawed some fallen limbs from the side yard.
Hermit Thrush.
Then I worked at the kitchen table until late morning, when I invited Jack to accompany me to the polls. (He waited in the pickup while I voted—nice to see such a busy Town Office.) Then we swung by Beech Hill.
The morning was sunny—cloudless, even—with temps in the 40s (F), a thaw underway. (Gonna take a few days to melt all this snow.) But as we started up the trail, a great edge of overcast moved over us from the southwest, and by the time we reached the summit, it had become a cloudy day. Big change. Kind of astonishing actually. But mostly I was distracted by all the birds.
A big early snow like this means little birds all over the place, flitting among the weeds. Lots of sparrows, juncos, yellow-rumps, foraging in the bare spots. At the spruce grove on top, I imagined I heard the note of a the thrush I saw up there yesterday.
Then we met another hiker—who turned out also to be a fellow birder. And a good one, at that: he pointed out a little flock of Horned Larks flying over, a Hermit Thrush (same one, I bet) on the porch of Beech Nut, a lovely male harrier winging high above the southeastern barrens, and a little pod of American Tree Sparrows. In fact, he’d spotted longspurs on his way up the trail—a species I have yet to see up there. Always nice to meet a knowledgeable bird nerd.
A hike like that will stick with you. Back at the kitchen table for work in afternoon, I found myself thinking more than once about the variety of birds I’d seen on the hill today.
A full and interesting November so far.
1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Yellow-rumped Warbler
3. Black-capped Chickadee*
4. Northern Flicker
5. Savannah Sparrow
6. American Crow*
7. Song Sparrow
8. Hermit Thrush
9. Horned Lark
10. Northern Harrier
11. American Tree Sparrow
12. Pileated Woodpecker (v)
13. American Goldfinch
14. Hairy Woodpecker (v)
Elsewhere
15. House Sparrow (v)
16. Tufted Titmouse
17. Herring Gull
18. Mallard
19. Rock Pigeon
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American tree sparrow, black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, horned lark, house sparrow, mallard, northern flickers, northern harrier, pileated woodpecker, rock pigeon, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, yellow-rumped warbler
