Northern flicker.
This day was, all in all, wet and chilly. I sensed some overnight rain, and the pavement showed evidence of it, but it then it stopped. For a while. Rain will not deter the reigning house finch, however. Nor the crows. I spent the day inside, most of it, with some forays out to town—including an unscheduled stop at the datacenter, where a juvenile crow hopped alongside the little drive, showing whitish patches as it flapped its new wings.
Veery.
Not until six o’clock did Jack and I managed to make our way to Beech Hill. Although more rain had come by then, it’d let up as we began our climb through the woods. Heard a crow. Didn’t expect much else. Heard a chestnut-sided warbler, a robin, and a veery. Then I spotted the veery—which was interesting. I’d heard it’s typical descending note interspersed with a chattering sort of note. (Veeries make crazy alarm sounds.) I’d also heard what sounded sort of like a waxwing’s thin call—but that had come between the veeries calls, never simultaneously. And as I watched the bird I confirmed that the veery was making the waxwing-like call. It emitted three distinctively different alarms.
Redstart, yellowthroat, catbird hermit thrush. Warblers and thrushes mostly. But at the upper fields I happened to glance over some brush and spotted a solitary male goldfinch sitting on a twig. It was silent. Not often do I see a bird but not hear it. (Same thing happened later as I caught site of a silent flicker in the trees of the lower wooded trail.) At the summit, the resident savannah sparrow gave us the business. It must have a nest nearby.
Returning through the woods I heard a loose trill that certainly belonged to some atypical warbler. Only later, when I listened to a few calls online, did I confirm it as a palm.
Savannah sparrow.
Incredibly, I’d counted seventeen species in this dim, soggy world. An odd number. So I took a glance up into the phoebe’s nest near the parking lot and, sure enough, saw a shadowy bird head poking out of the it. Eighteen is a nice round number. Especially nice when you consider the weather and the time of day.
Oddly, no vireo at all up there this evening for the first time in a while.
Tonight, the world is wetter and colder than it’s been all day. Darker also.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 6 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. American crow (voice)
2. Chestnut-sided warbler (voice)
3. American robin (voice)
4. Veery
5. Eastern towhee
6. American redstart (voice)
7. Common yellowthroat (voice)
8. Gray catbird (voice)
9. Hermit thrush (voice)
10. Song sparrow (voice)
11. Savannah sparrow
12. Ovenbird (voice)
13. American goldfinch
14. Cedar waxwing (voice)
15. Palm warbler (voice)
16. Blue jay (voice)
17. Northern flicker
18. Eastern phoebe
Elsewhere
19. House finch
20. Herring gull
21. Northern cardinal
22. Mourning dove
23. European starling
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, common yellowthroat, eastern phoebe, eastern towhee, European starling, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern flicker, ovenbird, palm warbler, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, veery
