Turkey vulture.
Wow, what a day. Brilliant sunlight, hardly any clouds. Mild temperatures—50s (F)—despite a bit of a breeze. We lazed around the house for a while, Jack and I, but decided to head to Beech Hill in late-morning, just because.
A number of cars in the parking lot. In the trees above the parking lot: chickadees and golden-crowned kinglets. A few people descending, a new group arriving just behind us.
Maple leaves.
Butter-butts are still about—I heard the chip notes of yellow-rumped warblers at three or four points along the trail. This seemed a perfect day for hawk sightings, but I didn’t see any on our ascent. Just a silvery-white distant ocean horizon below where the sun was, distant Matinicus floating in the middle of all that brightness.
We reached the summit, where folks were talking or sitting on the porch of Beech Nut having a snack. One gentlemen in sunglasses with binoculars hanging around his neck looked familiar. Then a large, loose puppy charged Jack.
“He’s a big friendly puppy,” one man said. After we circled the hut, I felt compelled to remind him of the dogs-on-leash rule up there.
Coming back down we met at least eight or ten other people ascending. A dog on a leash, a puppy, a group of four. I stopped to talk with a woman holding a very young dachshund just as a turkey vulture swooped low above us.
“I shooed it away,” the woman said, and I explained that it would have no interest in her pup—that vultures only eat dead stuff. This particular T.V. was rather photogenic, posing cooperatively in air.
Soon after a couple crows sailed by. And a pair of chickadees came out of nowhere to perch for a minute and call from one of the trailside birches. Then after they flitted away, a titmouse flitted in to replace them. It was calling, too, but it stayed on the back side of the tree and avoided the paparazzi.
Turkey vulture.
We met two other couples with leashed dogs before reaching the pickup. The air felt great, smelled luscious, seemed to portend good things. A wonderful walk up there.
Later, out riding my bicycle, coming down a fast hill, a robin fluttered by directly in front of me, its orange breast sunlit. Orange—a fitting color for this season.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 11 a.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Black-capped chickadee
2. Golden-crowned kinglet (voice)
3. Yellow-rumped warbler (voice)
4. Turkey vulture
5. American crow
6. Tufted titmouse
Elsewhere
7. Herring gull
8. Blue jay
9. American robin
10. Mourning dove
Matinicus.
Tags: American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, golden-crowned kinglet, herring gull, mourning dove, tufted titmouse, turkey vulture, yellow-rumped warbler
