Downy woodpecker (male).
A funny thing happened today. It involved woodpeckers.
Hairy woodpecker (female).
Up early enough. Sun streaming through. Still pretty nippy out, but I sensed a sort of warming trend—or maybe just less wind. Cardinal, titmice, and a jay out there. I scrambled around a bit to get some materials prepared for a lunch meeting. Good meeting, nice lunch. Then I scrambled around doing errands. On a lark, I even bought a couple of pillows. (Weird, right?)
While driving the over-busy streets of Rockland, I saw gulls sailing happily in the blue sky and pigeons darting about the various roadsides. Also crows here and there.
When Jack and I arrived at Beech Hill, we encountered a couple parked vehicles in the lot. We also encountered the voices of titmice and crows. I never saw the titmice, but I saw the crows—anxious crows, as most seem to be in October. I also saw more yellow-rumped warblers. Many of ’em, flitting about in the trailside hardwoods. Then I saw a woodpecker.
It was a hairy woodpecker, a female. She climbed a birch, pecking here and there. I got a couple photos. As I admired her comely black-and-white attire, I caught sight of another woodpecker flying in from the east. It landed in the next birch over. A downy woodpecker—a miniature version of the hairy, with a much tinier bill—and it was a male. So I watched the downy a while, too, and got a few photos of him. I can’t recall the last time I could watch both a hairy woodpecker and a downy woodpecker poking about not twenty feet apart. Nice.
Yellow-rumped warbler.
I also saw a blue jay and a couple song sparrows on the trail. At the summit, as I stopped to chat with some fellow hikers in the mild October air, scores more yellow-rumps flitted across, many of them alighting in the little spruce grove up there. They seemed to be coming from a northeasterly direction. Just getting their fall migration on.
Tonight the moon is brighter, the air slightly warmer. I’m looking forward to tomorrow for a couple reasons: a visit from my daughter, and a college football game.
P.S. OU sucks.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:30 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Tufted titmouse (voice)
2. American crow
3. Yellow-rumped warbler
4. Hairy woodpecker
5. Downy woodpecker
6. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
7. Blue jay
8. Song sparrow
9. Brown creeper (voice)
Elsewhere
10. Northern cardinal
11. Herring gull
12. Rock pigeon
13. American robin
14. Mallard
15. Double-crested cormorant
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, brown creeper, double-crested cormorant, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, mallard, northern cardinal, rock pigeon, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, yellow-rumped warbler
