Old birds and a new one

It was still late April, just a few days after my trip to Fort Desoto to look for migrating birds. I had heard there were some different birds there so I headed back down to the park. The sun was just coming up and I stopped on the bridge going into the park to snap the above with my phone.  I knew even if I didn’t find any good birds it would still be a great day out.

The first thing I saw by the ranger’s house was lots of rose breasted grosbeaks.

There were also a lot of indigo buntings, both female and males.

A nice surprise was seeing the Louisiana waterthrush. It was only my 2nd time seeing one and the first time was in 2017, right here at the fountain.

This was my first Nashville warbler. I spent a good bit of time looking for him along with a lot of other people. He was found deep in the mangroves and would not come out. At first I got a picture of his feet, then his wing. Finally I was able to at least get a shot of his face.

An osprey flies by with something to cushion the nest.

Kiteboarders out on this beautiful breezy morning.

So far this year I had seen a handful of first sightings which was pretty good considering I was limping around all of this time with a terrible case of plantar fasciitis. In January I got the black scoter and greater scaup, both were easy “get out of the car and snap” pictures. In February I got the Pacific loon and the vesper sparrow. April was the great tailed grackle and the Nashville warbler. In May I got 4 new birds but more to come on those later.

SkyWatch Friday

Early start to spring migration

My first ovenbird, hiding deep in the bushes.

My first Louisiana Waterthrush at the fountain.

An unidentified bird on the top. Any ideas?  The 2nd one is a Cape May Warbler.

Eastern kingbird high up in the tree.

A blurry shot of a young blue grosbeak. I thought his color was interesting. I guess he’s molting into his adult male colors.

An osprey with a fish.

And a pretty moth.

By  mid April there hadn’t been too many birds passing through on their way north for the summer.  I headed down to Fort Desoto Park expecting not to find too much. As usual there were more people than birds on the trails. Not too many birds but some good ones. Two new birds for me, the ovenbird and waterthrush so it was a good morning.

Our World Tuesday Graphicimage-in-ing