Song sparrow/.
Sunny morning. Cool still. A house finch calling out there, as usual. Chickadees, too. Song sparrows in the middle distance. And house sparrows hanging around the takeout place next door.
Water flow.
Plenty of sun, and not a lot of wind. By mid-afternoon, it was clear I’d be taking a bicycle ride.
Which I did. Just a little cold, but otherwise wonderful. Just feeling, no thinking, just breathing, the wind in my ears. I saw herring gulls and song sparrows. I heard chickadees and goldfinches and starlings and Bohemian waxwings. The roadside is still full of sand and gravel, but never mind. There’s no high quite like an endorphin high.
Jack’s a patient dog. An hour or so after my ride, I grabbed his leash and we jumped in the pickup and headed for Beech Hill—the wooded trail again where, in my experience, you start to see more birds come spring. We hadn’t gone a hundred feet when I heard chickadees. Then crows hollering at something. Saw three of them fly over. Then, coming over the little stream, I caught sight of a solitary, silent robin.
Before long, we were hearing less-silent robins, and I spotted a flicker flapping by. I wondered about the fox sparrows—but there they were again, behaving secretively, staying low in the undergrowth, scratching about in the old leaves. Heard herring gulls crying from somewhere.
Birch bark.
Stood for a while at the upper field in hopes of a hawk sighting. Not so lucky today as yesterday. But I did hear the faint sounds of a brush bird—a sparrow, no doubt, where I’d heard (but hadn’t seen) one yesterday—and sure enough, it hopped up onto a more-or-less open perch. A song sparrow (as I’d theorized yesterday). It uttered its distinctive note a couple times then sat there waiting for dog and me to move. Which we finally did, after I’d got a half-decent photo.
We returned again down the upper trail in hopes of catching fox sparrows in the angular afternoon sunlight, but no more appeared. A few robins, is all. But at the base of the hill, coming through the poplar grove, I heard the fluty spring song of a titmouse.
Tonight, the crescent moon is setting not quite an hour later than it did yesterday behind the hillside oaks. Moon and stars. Miraculous.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I hiked the upper wooded trail.
The sugar bush.
1. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
2. American crow
3. American robin
4. Northern flicker
5. Fox sparrow
6. Herring gull (voice)
7. Song sparrow
8. Tufted titmouse (voice)
Elsewhere
9. House finch
10. House sparrow
11. Rock pigeon
12. European starling
13. American goldfinch
14. Bohemian waxwing
15. Mourning dove
Tags: American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, European starling, fox sparrow, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern flicker, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse
