Common yellowthroat.
A hazy, cool sort of day. It’s that time of summer when the growth begins to slow. After an explosion of quick greenery, now all seems lush and full. The grass is high. I’ve noticed ripe wild strawberries and ripening raspberries and little green high-bush blueberries along the Beech Hill trails. In a few weeks I’ll be munching on trailside blackberries. And the blueberry harvest will be on.
Eastern towhee (female).
Plenty of birds singing early around my place. Notable was a vocal titmouse out back. Yellow warbler, redstart, catbird, song sparrow. I took a mid-afternoon bike ride. Sweet ride.
And we hit the wooded trail late in the day as usual, Jack and I.
Cool enough that the bugs didn’t swarm so insistently as they have lately. Familiar birds singing—but not so many. In fact, I’d counted only six songs and hadn’t seen a single bird by the time we neared the upper fields. But then a deliberate alarm call caught my attention in the last little stretch of trees, and we stopped. The call came from a catbird hidden in a low tree. And then I heard the alarm note of a robin. And saw the robin, up ahead. The catbird moved, and I caught sight of it. Then a chestnut-sided warbler got curious and flitted into the branches of a nearby tree. As we stood there I heard the squee! of waxwings and—from up toward the summit—a cooing mourning dove.
And within about five minutes, I’d had great looks at a female towhee (she perched on a low clump of leaves and chipped at us) and a male yellowthroat (he did the same). And heard a song sparrow, a veery, a redstart, a goldfinch. My list was growing fast.
A couple of savannah sparrows darted away as we circled Beech Nut. A dove—the one that’d been calling—sat on the chimney.
Black-eyed susan.
Returning through the dark, lower woodland, I added pewee, hermit thrush, and black-throated green warbler—the latter being (I feel sure) the same bird we saw yesterday, warning of our approach with its sharp, almost metallic chink! note. (I stopped until spotting it up in the trees both days.) And nearing the parking lot, I heard the falsetto cries of a young raven.
The air grew cooler in evening. After dark I stood for a while on the back deck and admired the ripe, full, fragrant earth—much different than it was six months ago.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Chestnut-sided warbler
3. Eastern towhee
4. Rose-breasted grosbeak (voice)
5. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
6. American crow
7. Gray catbird
8. American robin
9. Cedar waxwing (voice)
10. Mourning dove
11. Song sparrow (voice)
12. Common yellowthroat
13. Veery (voice)
14. American redstart (voice)
15. Savannah sparrow
16. Ovenbird (voice)
17. American goldfinch (voice)
18. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
19. Hermit thrush (voice)
20. Black-throated green warbler
21. Common raven (voice)
Elsewhere
22. Northern cardinal
23. House finch
24. Yellow warbler
25. Tufted titmouse
26. Herring gull
27. Osprey
28. Chipping sparrow
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American redstart, American robin, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common raven, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, gray catbird, hermit thrush, herring gull, house finch, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, ovenbird, red-eyed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, veery, yellow warbler
