Right in the middle of an old orchard, we encountered a singing Orchard Oriole on this 18 degree sunny morning:

I would describe the singing as a catbird singing a Baltimore oriole tune.

There are many juvenile birds around these days:

With the trees all in leaf, song sparrows are the easiest birds to photograph:

Species list: ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, eastern pewee, barn swallow, bank swallow, black-capped chickadee, house wren, Carolina wren, American robin, European starling, warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo, yellow warbler,  American redstart, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, common grackle, Baltimore oriole, orchard oriole,  northern cardinal, American goldfinch, indigo bunting, song sparrow.  (24 species)

These lovely, small blue butterflies were everywhere in the fields:

Park scenes:

Some botany:

This morning’s group:

NATURE POETRY

Among the Orchards

Already in the dew-wrapped vineyards dry
Dense weights of heat press down. The large bright drops
Shrink in the leaves. From dark acacia tops
The nuthatch flings his short reiterate cry;
And ever as the sun mounts hot and high
Thin voices crowd the grass. In soft long strokes
The wind goes murmuring through the mountain oaks.
Faint wefts creep out along the blue and die.
I hear far in among the motionless trees–
Shadows that sleep upon the shaven sod–
The thud of dropping apples. Reach on reach
Stretch plots of perfumed orchard, where the bees
Murmur among the full-fringed golden-rod,
Or cling half-drunken to the rotting peach. – Archibald Lampman