Blackpoll Warbler at Scarborough Bluffs/ May 29, 2019

Blackpoll Warblers winter in western South America and are usually our last warbler to show up in migration. They nest in stunted coniferous forests on mountain tops or near the northern limit of trees.

Blackpoll Warbler (female)
Blackpoll Warbler (female)
Blackpoll Warbler (female)

Two weeks ago we had 64 bird species here in the height of migration. This morning we had half that number though a few migrants such as Tennessee Warbler are still passing though:

Tennessee Warbler
Tennessee Warbler

Species list:  Canada goose, mallard, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, hairy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, tree swallow, rough-winged swallow, blue jay, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, house wren, gray catbird, American robin, European starling, warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo,Tennessee warbler, yellow warbler, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, blackpoll warbler, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, common grackle, Baltimore oriole, northern cardinal, house finch, American goldfinch, song sparrow.  (32 species)

American Robins
Song Sparrow
Baltimore Oriole
Hairy Woodpecker (male)
Hairy Woodpecker (male)

Other sights:

Benches in the water
Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
False Solomon-seal (Maianthemum racemosum)
Lungwort (Pulmonaria)
Lungwort (Pulmonaria)

This morning’s group:

NATURE POETRY

To the River Otter

Dear native brook! wild streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have passed,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! Yet so deep impressed
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes,
Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood’s cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless child!  -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Miles Hearn

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