May Birding Is Off To A fast Start

It was just a week ago that I hiked up Mount Higby in Middlefield. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a few migrating hawks as they were passing through. I spotted a few high flying Broad-winged hawks but other than a few songbirds and a couple of butterflies things were fairly quiet. A week later everything had changed as as a good number of warblers and other migrants moved into the area. I saw or heard several species of warblers including: Pine, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped, American Redstart (photo) , Yellow, Blue-winged, Northern Parula-heard-?, Black and White, Ovenbird, and Prairie. Most of them were seen during Hartford Audubon field trips that I attended at the Amston Rail Trail on Saturday and Gay City Park on Sunday. Some of the other birds I saw or heard included Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Yellow-throated Vireo, Solitary Sandpiper, Veery, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Least Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, and Eastern Kingbird.

I have also seen several butterflies such as Spicebush Swallowtail (above), duskywing, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

I believe this flower is a trillium that is sometimes referred to as a Stinking Benjamin. It has an unpleasant smell at close range that is supposed to attract flies. In the past when I heard people mention Trillium I would picture some sort of radioactive flowers growing next to a nuclear power plant.This water snake was firmly holding its ground as birders were passing by. I was impressed by the number of turtles, frogs and snakes that I came across this weekend. My wife called me over to the back door to ask me what was making all the noise in our yard Saturday evening. She was surprised to learn that it was frogs. I remember trying to track down noises in the past hoping to find an interesting bird only to learn from someone else that the sound I was hearing was coming from a frog.Tree Frogs and Wood Frogs were two species that had me fooled.

We spotted this Northern Flicker sticking her head out of the side of the tree hole.

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There is so much I want to see and do in the month of May that I find it a little bit frustrating to have to wait for the weekend. It's like having free tickets to an all -you -can -eat buffet but you have to use a plate the size of a bottle cap and be out of the restaurant within an hour. I guess you just have to enjoy it while you can!