Landscape, from Ragged Mountain.
I felt guilty for it, but I didn’t hike Beech Hill today. Instead, I drove up to the Thorndike Brook access point to the Georges Highland Path—a series of trails maintained by the Georges River Land Trust. The trail begins in a nondescript parking lot on Hope Street up Route 17 a ways. I’d never walked the trail before, but since I’m leading a bird walk there on Thursday, I decided to accept my birder friend Douglas Prescott’s invitation to check it out beforehand.
Blackburnian warbler.
Dog and I arrived at 7 a.m., just as Douglas was listening to a warbler call from a tree above the parking lot. A Tennessee warbler—first of the year for me. He also pointed out a couple discarded turkey carcasses left by irresponsible hunters in the corner of the parking lot. Idiots.
The trail begins in a grassy, low-growth area where chestnut-sided warblers and yellowthroats were calling. We heard an ovenbird, saw a redwing in overflight, heard the clear warble of a purple finch (first-of-year). Before long, we crossed a tributary of Thorndike Brook—or possibly the brook itself, I’m not sure—and heard our first confusing warbler song.
I like to think I know warblers’ songs, but a few I don’t know well. Canada, magnolia, the water thrushes. When you then consider the fact that many wood-warblers have alternate calls that they use at various times of year—and/or for various purposes (Douglas mentioned he’d read that the main call was an aggressive, establishing-territory call, whereas the alternate was more of a communal call—a sort of reassuring, proprietary song)—it sometimes does get a little confusing. At least to me.
That first confusing warbler sounded sort of like a yellowthroat, but not quite. It was too remote to pursue. But shortly after, higher up the steep, mixed-growth hillside, we heard another, a song reminiscent of a black-and-white warbler’s, but including two distinctly different pitches. We stood and scanned the treetops until we spotted it: a bright-faced blackburnian warbler, occupying a single perch, declaring himself to the world.
Empidonax flycatcher.
Higher up still, we heard a second blackburnian delivering a similar call—not its typical call, in my experience—and listened to at two or three other confusing warbler voices. We also watched juncos (they love those high, rocky summits), heard flycatchers and vireos, and came upon a number of thrushes. Robin, hermit thrush, wood thrush, a possible Swainson’s thrush (I couldn’t confirm an ID from a hasty photo). It was a thrushy woodland, that’s for sure.
And the view—wow. If you ever find yourself in coastal Maine, I recommend highly this little climb, from a nondescript parking lot with cast-off turkey carcasses to a summit with a view in all directions.
We saw or heard a number of other species also—a yodeling loon from Grassy Pond, an Empidonax flycatcher that made no sound (and therefore was unidentifiable), jay, tanager, dove. I’m glad I went and am looking forward to Thursday. But still I feel a little guilty about Beech Hill.
Unidentified thrush.
Georges Highland Path List
At 7 a.m., I walked via the Thorndike Brook access point.
1. Tennessee warbler*
2. Ovenbird (voice)
3. Red-winged blackbird
4. Common yellowthroat (voice)
5. Purple finch* (voice)
6. Chestnut-sided warbler
7. American robin
8. Blue jay (voice)
9. Wood thrush (voice)
10. Empidonax flycatcher*
11. White-throated sparrow (voice)
12. Black-capped chickadee
13. American goldfinch (voice)
14. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
15. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
16. Black-and-white warbler
17. Common loon (voice)
18. Hermit thrush (voice)
19. Mourning dove (voice)
20. Blackburnian warbler*
21. Nashville warbler (voice)
22. Dark-eyed junco
23. Black-throated blue warbler
24. Scarlet tanager (voice)
25. Great crested flycatcher (voice)
26. Blue-headed vireo (voice)
27. Eastern phoebe (voice)
28. Cedar waxwing (voice)
Elsewhere
29. American crow
30. House sparrow
31. House finch
32. Common grackle
33. Tufted titmouse
34. Chipping sparrow
35. European starling
36. Herring gull
37. Rock pigeon
38. Gray catbird
39. American redstart
40. Song sparrow
Chestnut-sided warbler (female).
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-and-white warbler, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common grackle, common loon, common yellowthroat, dark-eyed junco, eastern phoebe, Empidonax flycatcher, European starling, gray catbird, great crested flycatcher, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, ovenbird, purple finch, red-winged blackbird, rock pigeon, scarlet tanager, song sparrow, Tennessee warbler, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, wood thrush
