Gray Catbird.
Two straight super-saturated spring mornings
with stout winds a-blowin’.
Two chances to hear the conversational sound
of the branches of trees rubbing together,
letting out squeals and shrieks and wails.
Sometimes things fall.
Savannah Sparrow, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 17 May 2016.
In the woods yesterday I heard
—then saw—
one huge upper limb of a tree plummet,
fall straight down,
crash in a matt of leaves and brush,
and generate an echo.
From the size of the limb, it had to be
decades old.
Oh, what that limb had seen in its
forty or fifty years alive on the planet.
Or felt, or smelled somehow.
Decades, nearly as many as I’ve lived.
And yet in a few seconds it goes.
I daresay I, too, shall go down that way someday.
By falling.
Ovenbird.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-throated Green Warbler**
2. Ovenbird**
3. American Goldfinch*
4. Chestnut-sided Warbler
5. Northern Parula (v)
6. Barred Owl (v)
7. Eastern Phoebe*
8. Eastern Towhee**
9. Black-and-white Warbler*
10. Common Yellowthroat*
11. Blue-headed Vireo (v)
12. American Crow*
13. Purple Finch (v)
14. Nashville Warbler
15. Gray Catbird**
16. Yellow-rumped Warbler
17. Mourning Dove*
18. American Robin
19. Blue Jay**
20. Yellow Warbler (v)
21. Field Sparrow (v)
22. Tree Swallow
23. Song Sparrow**
24. Northern Cardinal* (v)
25. Northern Flicker**
26. Tufted Titmouse* (v)
27. Herring Gull (v)
28. American Redstart*
29. Black-capped Chickadee (v)
30. Downy Woodpecker
31. Veery
32. Hermit Thrush (v)
33. Black-throated Blue Warbler (v)
34. Brown Creeper (v)
Elsewhere
Savannah Sparrow, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine,
35. Pine Warbler**
36. Red-bellied Woodpecker (not bad V)
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, barred owl, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, blue-headed vireo, common yellowthroat, downy woodpecker, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, mourning dove, Nashville warbler, northern cardinal, northern flicker, northern parula, ovenbird, purple finch, song sparrow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, veery, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
