Beech Hill summit.
A mix of sun and clouds this morning. Lots of bird activity around my place: crow, titmouse, chickadee, house finch, song sparrow—and probably something I’m forgetting. The sun poked through a time or two, melting much of the remnant ice from the places I’d shoveled late yesterday, but then, come midday, a snow shower began.
Snowflake.
About that time, Jack and I took a quick trip to town. It wasn’t quite freezing out, and the tiny snow particles made a little rat-a-tat sound on the windshield. Gulls flew in a great cloud around the roof of the old Van Baalen’s building, and I spotted a solitary pigeon above Main Street.
Drove around doing errands and finally ended up at Beech Hill about 4. A pickup in the parking lot. Then, as we got set to hike, I realized I’d forgotten my camera and so we dashed home for it. When we got back, the pickup was gone, but I could tell from the tracks that another man and dog had walked the trail before us. They might even have been the only ones.
Ours was a pretty easy hike up as we followed a fairly well-defined track through the past couple days’ snowfall. Today’s precipitation had dwindled to nearly nothing—just a few lazy flakes falling in the suddenly still air. The yellow ball of the sun glowed low in the southwest sky behind a mass of deep gray clouds, but toward the northeast a great swath of blue overhung Penobscot Bay. Every direction I looked, it seemed, offered the prospect of a spectacular landscape photo.
Cloud.
Heard—then saw—three of four crows flapping around the open fields near the summit. Heard a hairy woodpecker, then a flicker. The air turned so still up there that the remnant few snowflakes seemed to descend in slow motion. What a serene and peaceful scene.
Returning, I heard a robin calling down the southern slope. And along the road, I heard—then saw—a song sparrow. Finally, stopping to listen from the parking lot, I heard the mourning dove with the crazy up-turning notes that I’d heard there yesterday. It’s always satisfying in some strange way to know you’re listening to the voice of the very same bird you’ve listened to on some other day before.
This evening, around my place, I stopped to listen: crow, titmouse, chickadee, house finch, song sparrow. No woodcocks yet beyond that first migrating bird.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. American crow
2. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
3. Northern flicker (voice)
4. American robin (voice)
5. Song sparrow
6. Mourning dove (voice)
Elsewhere
7. House finch
8. Tufted titmouse
9. Black-capped chickadee
10. Herring gull
11. Rock pigeon
12. Blue jay
Bay sky.
Tags: American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern flicker, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse
