Eastern towhee.
This morning for the first time in a while I wore a long-sleeved shirt on my Beech Hill hike with dog. Its hue just about matched the rufous sides of a towhee, or the first flush of fall-colored leaves. Sunny as can be, but chilly. With a fickle breeze.
Not much happening over our first ten or fifteen minutes up the wooded trail. A heck of a lot happening thereafter.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
There were chickadees off in the trees. There were goldfinches flying over. Crows cawing in the distance. The mew of a catbird. The chips of warblers. Many chips. Many warblers.
We stopped about half way up the trail, Jack and I, and must’ve stood there for fifteen minutes as a great flock of yellow-rumped warblers flitted about in the sunny leaves of the young scrubby trees in front of us. At least a dozen of them, I’d say. As I snapped photos, I heard other ‘rumps very close behind me. Like, three or four feet behind me. That’d be too close to focus, though, so I didn’t bother even to turn around.
Also from that spot I heard flickers calling from somewhere. Faintly. A subtle sort of wick-a, wick-a. And the clear tseet! of a white-throated sparrow. And the beep-beep-beep of a nuthatch. And, suddenly, a somewhat larger bird flitted up onto a bare twig in the sun—a junco. Huh. First one of those I’ve seen in a while. Kind of a portent of fall.
Dark-eyed junco.
The warblers were still flitting about when Jack and I decided to continue on up the trail. Emerging into the open fields, where the eastern sun flooded the sides of a stand of hardwoods, more yellow-rumps. Probably a dozen more. I counted a half-dozen in my view at one time, in fact. A catbird darted away in the undergrowth. Some larger, fairer-colored bird zipped around the trees—maybe a flycatcher, but I didn’t get a positive ID. The voice of what must’ve been a purple finch, which I just caught site of as it flew away. But mostly just warblers. And from what my binoculars told me, yellow-rumps all.
Reaching the last line of open trail before the summit, a similar story: the sun-soaked eastern sides of trees, a dozen or so yellow-rumped warblers chipping away. But this time there were other species, as well: vireos and white-throats and at least magnolia warbler. As I sat there releasing my shutter, I saw a moving shape out of the corner of my left eye and so moved my eye in that direction just in time to see a marsh hawk flying low and lazily maybe six feet over the trail ahead of me—maybe thirty feet away. That’s the closest I’ve ever been to a harrier.
Magnolia warbler.
It happened to fast for a photo, though. Anyway, I had plenty of tiny flitting subjects.
Not much in the spruce grove except a nice wind. No savannah sparrows that I could see. Jays in the periphery.
Coming back up and over I noticed a light-colored bird veering around near a hedgerow. It hopped up into view: an alder flycatcher, I’m sure. (Hard to ID these just from sight, but this was the area they nested this year.) And coming down the lower wooded trail, I heard the astonishingly loud notes of brown creepers and, lastly, the chuckling of a pileated woodpecker.
But I’ll remember this day for the yell0w-rumped warblers.
Red-eyed vireo.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:15 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. American goldfinch (voice)
3. American crow (voice)
4. Gray catbird (voice)
5. Eastern towhee
6. Yellow-rumped warbler
7. Northern flicker
8. White-throated sparrow
9. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
10. Dark-eyed junco
11. Purple finch
12. Song sparrow (voice)
13. Magnolia warbler
14. Red-eyed vireo
15. Northern harrier
16. Common yellowthroat
17. Blue jay (voice)
18. Alder flycatcher
19. Brown creeper (voice)
20. Pileated woodpecker (voice)
Elsewhere
21. Herring gull
22. Rock pigeon
23. Turkey vulture
'Rump.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, brown creeper, common yellowthroat, dark-eyed junco, eastern towhee, gray catbird, magnolia warbler, northern flicker, northern harrier, pileated woodpecker, purple finch, red-eyed vireo, song sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
