May Day, the 1st

When the day begins with a "bearded" sparrow it's a sign of good things to come.
Brushed out dog's hair, ideal nest interior.

After that things got interesting and a bit different. Black and white warbler preening instead of the usual working the side of a tree.

A Nashville warbler, a sweet surprise.

The parula out in the sunshine, then going for a drink.

The air was filled with sounds of warblers singing way up high in the tree tops. It's almost hopeless making an ID, but I wanted to match sound and bird. One lucky moment, a song, and then the chestnut-sided warbler right by my face.

Also not too high up, upside down salad eater.

Very high up for most of the viewing, (drats), the scarlet tanager.

Always low down- the ovenbird.

Frustration. I saw the flash of orange and knew that it wasn't a robin taking a bath, but this was almost totally obscured by brush and branches. Then the bird flew to preen. An oriole! Gorgeous, but not a clear view until it moved a second time. I've never seen an oriole so wonderfully fluffed up.

When the robin "talked" to me I knew it was time to head home. Four hours of hiking and observing can be enthralling, but also tiring.

There were so many birds and so many sounds. There was a cluster of female red-winged blackbirds way up in a tree. I had only ever seen a female before one-at-a-time near the reeds. The northern water thrush was working the gill. There were redstarts at Strawberry Fields. I'm not good at identifying the many vireos I saw. The woodpeckers were rat-tat-a-tatting in the trees. This was a totally joyful May 1st. The only sad thing was the little boy who found an intact robin's egg in the grass.

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