Hiking North from the Train Station

Audubon Magazine has an interesting hiker memoir in it, published online on 2 February 2012. By Jesse Greenspan, it's titled "Two Months on the Appalachian Trail; One hiker’s experience on the northernmost section of the East’s famous footpath."

What's most interesting in this tale about a 59 day hike over the 741 miles from the Appalachian Trail train station platform north to Katahdin is the recurring mention of specific birds seen or heard. Such as after his first night on the Trail "The next morning, I wake up to a wood thrush and veery chorus." I don't know tons about birds, but I know those are two very cool birds to listen to (or is it that those are two I could identify, so I only think they're cool?). Anyway, very few of the hiker memoirs I've read includes terms like "wood thrush" or "veery."