A perfect morning for the birds

The air was cool, damp, and still, so filled with bugs, which appears to be just the way birds like it because they were everywhere this morning. The only problem is that the trees are pretty leafed out now, so there are a lot more places for the little devils to hide, but I managed to get some pictures anyway.

Here’s a Wilson’s warbler (Cardellina pusilla) partially hiding behind one of those new leaves and new to these pages.

A magnolia warbler, whom we’ve seen already this spring.

And a common yellowthroat not making it any easier than last time.

So there are still some warblers around, and I also found a robin’s nest with a robin still in it, although the rain might make it wish it had fledged already.

Here someone else I’m not sure we’ve seen before, a female hooded merganser, by the look of her dark eyes. We’ve seen males on the river and the pond and a non-breeding male on the river, by the look of his yellow eyes, but I don’t think we’ve seen a female before. She’s a good fisher and twice I watched her come up with a crayfish.

Also on the river today I finally got a picture of a ring-billed gull. You may have noticed that I included them in the index of species, for a while, but recently conceded that I just couldn’t find a picture of one and removed them. Well, there were four of them fishing at the falls today, along with the much-larger herring gull, so I finally realized what I was seeing. Turns out, the gull picture from yesterday is a ring-bill, too.

Ring-billed gulls, with yellow legs and black rings on their beaks

Larger herring gull, with pink legs and no black ring around the tip of its beak.

And I managed to capture and image of one of the chipmunks I’ve been seeing along the river from time to time.

Meanwhile, at the pond, the painted turtles were up trying to capture some of the meager sun.

And the goslings keep turning grass into bigger goslings, and the new one is still hanging out with the neighbors kids.

On my way home, I spotted three squirrels who looked a little small, but they were definitely no red, so probably just young. While two were playing, this one was focused on getting bigger.