Yellow-rumped warbler.
I’m ceaselessly astonished at just how many yellow-rumped warblers there are around here. I know it’s fall migration, and they’re at their peak at exactly this time of year—but still. Butter-butts everywhere.
Northern harrier.
This early morning, as the sun rose out of Penobscot Bay, revealing a cloudless sky and a brisk, cool day, I heard a crow calling up the hill out back. Caw-caw, caw-caw, caw-caw. I’m used to the five-note call with the middle “caw” missing, but this was an eight note call missing two “caw”s. As one who believes crows have a secret, sophisticated language, this struck me as very interesting. But that’s just me.
Dog and I went about our usual morning routine until 11:30, when we headed in a hurry to Beech Hill. In the parking lot, we met a woman who had just finished her hike. She asked about Jack, I called him a “great birding dog,” she mentioned seeing a hawk that she thought might be a northern harrier, with a white rump? I confirmed her ID. Then she reported also seeing a thrush of some kind in the little wooded patch where I saw a hermit thrush the other day. Again I confirmed her ID—and wondered if I’d see either bird.
Jewel of the Seas.
Regardless: ah, what a day. A little chilly on the open trail coming up the west side of the hill, but coming down the wooded eastern section (which we hadn’t done in a good while but felt compelled to do today), I felt overdressed with a hooded sweatshirt. Right away I heard a chickadee and a couple yellow-rumps. We passed a group of three photographers (seemingly) coming up the trail, and just at that moment I sure enough spied a harrier gliding up around Beech Nut on the summit.
“There’s a harrier,” says I.
“Where?” says the one male of the group. He unzipped bags and grabbed for a longer camera lens.
Sailboat heeling.
Up top, we had a good view of Jewel of the Seas, a 2,000-passenger cruise ship that’s anchored for the day in Rockland Harbor. We also had a good view of a sailboat heeling over beyond Indian Island Light. Thinking of the great wind- and rainstorm of early Friday, I decided to see what the wooded trail looked like.
There were limbs down, many limbs. But no gigantic trees. I cleared a dozen or so branches away—one of ’em had come down end first and stabbed into the exact middle of muddy trail, and I couldn’t help but think it would’ve surely killed a person had someone been walking in its way. Chickadees peeped here and there, as did white-throated sparrows.
Coming back up the upper trail, yellow-rumps flitted everywhere. I must’ve seen at least a hundred of them on our hike today. I also saw several plain birds zipping about the underbrush and managed to catch one in my binoculars: a hermit thrush (sure enough). It posed long enough to get a photo.
Warm on the east side, cool on the west. Coming down the open trail, the west wind rippled through our respective fur and clothing. Oddly, a solitary goldfinch flew over, headed west, calling. And in the wind I heard the distant cries of a jay.
Later, while riding my bicycle, I heard starlings’ voices from above me along Route 1 in a number of places. Later still, while emerging into the parking lot of the grocery store, I heard the squeals of ring-billed gulls and admired an amazing purple sunset. I didn’t bother to try to capture the image with my cell phone—though, I must confess, the thought occurred to me.
Tonight the waxwing moon is bright. As is Jupiter.
Hermit thrush.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 11:30 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
2. Yellow-rumped warbler
3. Northern harrier
4. Northern raven (voice)
5. White-throated sparrow
6. Hairy woodpecker
7. Hermit thrush
8. American goldfinch
9. Blue jay (voice)
Elsewhere
10. American crow
11. House sparrow
12. Herring gull
13. European starling
14. Ring-billed gull
Inland hills.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, common raven, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, house sparrow, northern harrier, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
