Happy Mother’s Day!

To all the moms out there, this hug’s for you.

Funny thing was that while I was trying to get the perfect picture of this Mother’s Day snuggle, there suddenly was a highish pitched call, a little bit like a hawk, and all the goslings looked to see who it was.

It turns out to be just one of the wood duck hens letting everyone know about something, and so everyone eventually want back to snuggling with Mom, and later they all went out for Mother’s Day brunch.

There are also plenty of warblers still at the pond. Here are a couple of shots of a yellow-rumped and a chestnut-sided. The later seems to be saying “I just posed yesterday!”

Down at the river, the robin chicks appear to be progressing nicely. They all seemed pretty feisty this morning, and still as hungry as ever. Remember what the first one out of its shell looked like just 9 days ago?

Oh, and I finally saw chicks poking their heads out of the second nest a little ways up the path, but instead of even more robin pictures, here’s a grackle showing off, instead.

I think I spotted a warbler along the river that we haven’t seen yet season. The pictures aren’t ideal for identification, but the grey head and greyish throat makes me think it’s a “female/immature” Nashville warbler (Leiothlypis ruficapilla). The first warbler I ever saw was a Nashville just one year and five days ago. Man, too bad the blue sky had not yet arrived when I took these, eh?

Also along the river, a catbird is perhaps getting used to me taking its picture, or maybe it just was more hungry for sumac seeds than it was annoyed with me.

Speaking of sumac, a little hermit thrush seemed to be trying to recreate the magic we had on that one day back in February.

Further north along the river, a black-and-white warbler gave me yet another chance, and I think you can see my progress.

Finally, near the north end, a spotted sandpiper liked the portrait I took of the solitary sandpaper a few days ago, but refused to pretend to be napping.

On my way back south, it was feeding time again, if you can believe it.

Lastly, I spotted an oriole getting a sip of water from that little stream that runs down from the pond to the river and then checking out a nest hanging over the river, which might be leftover from last year.

While taking this last picture, I could hear a nest full of chicks, and I’m pretty sure they’re hairy or downy woodpeckers, but the adult was very adamant about not approaching the nesting cavity while I was watching, so I’ll try again tomorrow from further way.