Happy Mother’s Day!

Here’s a nice little bouquet of hepticia, aka liverleaf or liverwort, just opening up beside the parkway across from the guardrail, for all the moms out there.

More orioles are arriving, and here’s one of a trio I spotted overhead as I could hear a fourth singing across the river.

The tree swallows are still searching for nesting cavities.

While this male, northern flicker continues excavating his.

He sure gets in farther than he did yesterday.

And this female, red-bellied woodpecker works on hers.

At the pond, things remain mostly the same, but without the night-heron. It was still pretty cool when I visited, so the goslings were tucked under Mom’s wings, and I left them alone. Instead, the wood ducks were up and about, and this pair came up on the lawn to see if I had brought them anything.

The fun surprise at the pond was spotting this handsome, white-crowned sparrow. We’ve been seeing a lot of the white-throated sparrows recently, with similar black and white stripes on their heads, but the white-crowned sparrows don’t have a white throat or little yellow patches over the eyes.

Back at the river, the great horned owl was out and enjoying a morning nap.

Finally, at the far south end, I came across a quartet of deer, and here’s two that appear to be a mature doe and yearling who might be starting to sport his “buttons”.

The wind was blowing pretty good out of the south, and I didn’t see a single kinglet, for a change, so maybe they hitched a ride north, and we’ll see a new cast of characters tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.