We had 7 more bird species here today than during yesterdays walk. The highlight was a close look (and listen) at an Eastern Wood Pewee:




Another highlight was seeing Baltimore Orioles darting in and out of their well-camouflaged nest:



Species list: double-crested cormorant, black-crowned night heron, green heron, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, wood duck, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, northern flicker, red-bellied woodpecker, eastern wood pewee, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, American robin, blue-gray gnatcatcher, European starling, warbling vireo, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, common grackle, brown-headed cowbird, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, chipping sparrow, song sparrow. (27 species)





Park scenes:



This mornings group:

Other nature:



Some botany:











NATURE POETRY
When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened. Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, ‘Safe!
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night bee too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.’ – Robert Frost