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Beak full of fluff
Two days ago, my daughter combed the dog outside. It made our day yesterday to see this chickadee gathering up dog hair off the lawn for nesting material.
There’s going to be a very soft bed for some birdlets, somewhere!
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Unfurling Ferns
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Yellow-rumped Warblers
These little birds always appear to be looking up, thanks to the white outline below their eyes. They’re around now, but most of the times I’ve seen them they’ve been up high.
Last year they appeared down low in the bushes once, and I got some good pictures. This one is still my favorite.
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This morning
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Baltimore Oriole
This handsome fellow turned up yesterday. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb! He certainly brightened up a drab day with a splash of brilliant color.
I’ve put out some orange slices in an old suet cage, but he hasn’t been back — yet.
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Killdeer Nest
Mrs. Killdeer tried hard to lure us away from her nest with her broken wing routine. My husband is the one who spied these eggs, camouflaged though they are among the other stones.
I’ve seen a red fox twice at the other end of the airport from this nest. I hope he doesn’t find it. It’s always with mixed feelings that I become aware of a bird’s nest. There are so many strikes against them — predators and tromping people especially. I’ll check back in a week or so to see if these eggs are still there.
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Trout Lily
Yesterday as we explored alongside the river, we came upon lots of these lovely yellow flowers sprouting up. I came home and looked them up in our wildflower book.
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Yellow Warbler
What a treat to see this yellow warbler this morning — first of the season!
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Spring flourishes
Blue-gray gnatcatcher My daughter was excited to spot this tiny bird making its buzzing call as it foraged among the leaves. It seemed never to be either still nor silent, but it was a treat to see.
We also saw a number of yellow-rumped warblers, a palm warbler, and more ruby-crowned kinglets.
Palm warbler 
Ruby-crowned kinglet A swallow watched us, his mate a few feet away on the fence.
On a walk yesterday, we looked hopefully at the pileated woodpecker nest cavity we watched last year. To our surprise, a bird was peering out — but it wasn’t a pileated woodpecker. It was a northern flicker! I’m not sure if it was resting or trying on the nest for size.
Northern flicker We saw a few other beauties on our walk as well, from various instances of dead-wood art….
…to may apples unfurling their umbrellas.
These are just the things I was able to get pictures of, but among the other sights that have pleased us lately are the brown thrasher we saw “gardening” in the dirt under our bird feeder this morning, the fox that ran beside us for awhile on our bird watching jaunt, and the turkey that startled up and flew away in the brush nearby (nesting?). It’s a great time of year because every few days there is something new popping out of the ground or into the treetops.
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Glory of the Snow
Not sure how I’ve missed these lovely little flowers interspersed among the grass in various lawns around and about, but I’ve noticed it this year. It’s called chionodoxa, poetically nicknamed Glory of the Snow.
