Though we had fewer bird species here than a few days ago, there was still much migratory activity on this 15 degree, sunny morning.

A highlight was the richly coloured Bay-breasted Warbler:

Other warblers:

Species list: Canada goose, turkey vulture, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, rock pigeon, hairy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker,  eastern kingbird, least flycatcher, bank swallow, barn swallow, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, house wren, gray catbird, American robin, European starling, warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo, blue-headed  vireo, Tennessee warbler, Nashville warbler, northern parula warbler, yellow warbler, magnolia warbler, yellow-jumped warbler, black-throated green warbler, blackburnian warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, bay-breasted warbler, common yellowthroat, American redstart, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, common grackle, Baltimore oriole, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, chipping sparrow, song sparrow.  (44 species)

Park scenes:

This morning’s group:

NATURE POETRY

The Blue Heron

by Theodore Goodridge Roberts

In a green place lanced through
With amber and gold and blue;
A place of water and weeds
And roses pinker than dawn,
And ranks of lush young reeds,
And grasses straightly withdrawn
From graven ripples of sands,
The still blue heron stands.

Smoke-blue he is, and grey
As embers of yesterday.
Still he is, as death;
Like stone, or shadow of stone,
Without a pulse or breath,
Motionless and alone
There in the lily stems:
But his eyes are alive like gems.

Still as a shadow; still
Grey feather and yellow bill:
Still as an image made
Of mist and smoke half hid
By windless sunshine and shade,
Save when a yellow lid
Slides and is gone like a breath:
Death-still—and sudden as death!

Miles Hearn