Common yellowthroat (female).
Feeling lazy. A little drizzle delayed our daily Beech Hill hike until midday.
No cars in the parking lot when we arrived in late morning. A fully overcast sky, very little breeze. Heard a cedar waxwing calling from high in the sugar maple stand—then no more birds for several minutes.
Not surprising. It was midday, after all, and overcast. And late August.
Ovenbird.
On either side of the upper wooded trail, blackberry brambles were drooping with plump, ripe fruit. I ate three of the largest berries I could find, but left the rest. (Possibly only until tomorrow—it being hard to resist ripe wild blackberries.) Heard a towhee, a red-eyed vireo, chickadees, and a crow. Then spotted a silent white-throated sparrow in the undergrowth.
The first true thrill was seeing a couple of silent ovenbirds in the little wooded section just below the summit. Dim light, grainy photos, but proof nonetheless. Soon after, as Jack and I emerged into summit fields, I saw sails in the bay and a herring gull flapping westward to the south.
Coming down the open trail, we met several Sunday hikers coming the other way. But we didn’t meet any savannah sparrows—for the second straight day. I’m starting to think that, given our nearness to fall, all the many Beech Hill savannahs, young and old, have moved on.
Nearing Beech Hill Road, I spotted a bird in the thicket there and managed to train my fieldglasses on it: a female purple finch. That was a nice surprise.
The second true thrill, came as we’d topped the hill on our return trip and had just begun descending the lower wooded trail: the song of a black-throated blue warbler. Seems you can never predict when those lovely little guys will show up.
The third: on our last bit of home stretch, the voice of a black-billed cuckoo.
The bay.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 11:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Cedar waxwing (voice)
2. Eastern towhee (voice)
3. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
4. Black-capped chickadee
5. American crow (voice)
6. White-throated sparrow
7. Common yellowthroat
8. Ovenbird
9. Herring gull
10. Blue jay (voice)
11. Gray catbird (voice)
12. American goldfinch (voice)
13. Purple finch
14. Northern flicker (voice)
15. Black-throated blue warbler (voice)
16. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
17. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
Elsewhere
17. Northern cardinal
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated blue warbler, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, northern cardinal, northern flicker, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, white-throated sparrow
