photographs and text by Brian Willson

Fall is the sweetest equinox here on the 44th parallel. (The other one is spiteful and untrustworthy.) Today had drizzle and fog and birds on Beech Hill. In fact, at one point on my afternoon hike with Jack, a black-billed cuckoo hopped up onto a branch right in front of us, but by the time I’d lifted my camera, it had flown.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 3:15 p.m., I hiked the wooded trails.

1. Black-capped chickadee**
2. Red-eyed vireo**
3. Gray catbird
4. Yellow-rumped warbler
5. American woodcock
6. American crow* (v)
7. Black-billed cuckoo
8. Eastern towhee (v)
9. Blue jay** (v)
10. Northern flicker (v)

Elsewhere

11. Herring gull
12. Rock pigeon

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere