Still cold, but the bright sun really helps…

The cold continued this morning, but the sun sure takes a bite out of it these days. The goslings at the pond appear to be doing fine, and were taking an after-breakfast nap when I arrived.

In the trees along the east side of the pond, I found a nice and friendly female blue-gray gnatcatcher still working on rustling up her breakfast against a nice blue sky.

On the way down to the river, I met a cottontail who hopped down the trail ahead of me as if to show me the way. Thanks, little buddy!

At the river, the robin chicks are growing up fast, and I see Dad at the nest more often than ever now. One unlucky chick chose a poor time to stretch its wing, though.

The chicks are really starting to look like robins, but don’t tell John Gurda!

While checking on the robins, I heard the house wren again, and caught him singing his heart out on a nearby branch.

A bit north of there, near the beer garden, I encountered this white-crowned sparrow who was also “singing”, but it was more of a humming to itself than announcing anything, so perhaps the poor critter is shy or maybe just self-conscious about its voice.

After I took a few shots, it even wondered if that was really its best side and turned to face the other way. A regular little bundle of anxieties, this one.

At the north end, I spotted an indigo bunting again, but flubbed that shot, and got this one of a turkey vulture instead. You can even see its bright red face this time.

On my way back south, I believe I finally stumbled upon a new species for us, a warbling vireo (Vireo gilvus). It’s a relative of the red-eyed vireo we saw last summer with an even less-assuming appearance and a marvelous song. In fact, its appearance is so nondescript that I’m sure I already have pictures of one that I simply could not identify, and even needed a couple images today to be sure. It doesn’t help that it keeps to the treetops.

Finally, just when I thought I was going to chalk up another day without a single warbler, this little palm warbler came to my rescue. yay.

And that’s all I’ve got for you today.