American robin.
There’s just something about robins.
Brown creeper.
American robins are accessible birds: they hop about in residential yards hunting worms, they nest in the eaves 0f houses, they sing from roadside trees. Unlike Old World robins—little, colorful fly-catching birds made famous in nursery rhymes—ours are thrushes. And while they might not have the ethereal, fairyland voices of the hermit thrush or the wood thrush, you can still make out those thrushy tones in their matter-of-fact songs in early morning and late evening. They’re often the first birds I hear before dawn, in fact, and the last I hear in deep twilight.
Here at the 44th parallel, robins will winter over. But those birds tend to be of the Canadian race, with darker, richer plumage. Those have surely headed back north by now, and what we see in the woods and on the lawns are our resident, nesting birds.
I’ve come to know a little of the language of robins—their song, of course, but also their squee! note, their “tut-tut” (accompanied by two synchronized fluffs of their tail), their abrupt chatter of alarm. They’re certainly handsome birds. And it’s fun to watch them hop a couple times, stop and tilt their heads as if listening for worms, then suddenly dart down and begin yanking a long nightcrawler from the grass. (In fact, they use their eyes to spot worms. Most birds’ vision is impressibly acute.)
Greening trail.
But mostly I love simply listening to them. A robin’s song, early or late, is familiar and comforting. In twilight tonight, out on my back deck watching Venus go down, I heard the song of a robin nearby. I’m guessing the bird saw me standing there, because it flitted up into a low branch of the great overhanging oak—I saw its silhouette perfectly against the deep blue sky—and watched me for a moment. Then it gave its bright alarm chatter and slipped away into the night.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 4:45 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.
1. Herring gull*
2. Black-capped chickadee (v)*
3. American robin*
4. Brown creeper
5. American crow (v)*
6. Northern cardinal (v)*
7. American goldfinch (v)*
8. Mallard
9. Eastern phoebe*
10. Hairy woodpecker (v)
Elsewhere
11. Tufted titmouse
12. House finch
13. House sparrow
14. European starling
15. Rock pigeon
16. Osprey
17. Mourning dove
18. American woodcock (flight song)
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, American woodcock, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, eastern phoebe, European starling, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house finch, house sparrow, mallerd, mourning dove, northern cardinal, osprey, rock pigeon, tufted titmouse
