The day started with a lot of clouds through which the sun was deciding whether to peep or not…

I walked through the trees.... All the recent rain had brought out the moss on some of them: I whipped around with the camera to catch a beautiful bird that was shaking itself after a bath in the puddle: Amazingly, later, my fellow-volunteer Mary id'd it as a CHIPPING SPARROW from that SMS! I reached the Visitors' Center, and the Wings of Spring event went really well at Forest Park. We had 8 eight volunteers....I can name six...Penn, Frank, Chris, Jim, Mary and I...the other two...their names escape me! As we set up on our stop (which would be the third stop on the four-stop trolley tour), there was a dance/aerobics class in progress nearby: But here's Mary Duerin, who was with me at the third trolley-stop; She's very knowledgeable, and was quite patient with my queries...and helped me id the Chipping Sparrow, and spotted a Baltimore Oriole and scoped it for me, too! Here's a SCARLET TANAGER.... on her ear-ring! We "set up shop" with a couple of scopes, a couple of binocs, a couple of bird-books, and two chairs (which we never used), and here was the stop sign: I took a couple of shots to show the visitors when they came; first this AMERICAN GOLDFINCH on a branch above our heads: and then this NORTHERN CARDINAL nearby:' We did see some not-too-common birds (such as the Great Blue Heron, Green Herons, and the American Kestrel) but not at the time the trolley group was with us. At that time, all that could be seen were the usual MALLARDS: But this group was enlived by some hybrids, including the white-and-black, black-and-grey, and grey-and-black birds! The Wings of Spring Trolley arrived.... In the video, you can see the Forest Park Forever volunteers, Chris Ferree, and Jim Wilson (though YOU can't recognize them, I can!..oh well, Chris is the only person on the RIGHT hand side of the tree at the beginning of the video, with a pair of binocs around his neck-- and Jim is the Swiss-Alpine looking guy in a hat at the end!) We had a few walkers, too, visiting us; they were very knowledgeable, and from Mary, I also learnt a lot about Canada Goose behaviour. There was also a display by the Audubon Society at the fourth stop, and after I finished, I walked home and got the family to visit it when they were nearly packing up: Here are Heidi and her beautiful daughter Iris, who've been coming regularly for the monthly birdwalks...it's so lovely to see a young mother putting her daughter in touch with the natural world! The clouds in the sky were breaking up into more fair-weather formation as I walked home... The partial birdlist: Cardinal,Northern Crow,American Goldfinch,American Dove, Mourning Ducks,Assorted Hybrid Egrets, Snowy Heron, Great Blue Kestrel, American Mallards Martin,Purple Mockingbird, Northern Oriole, Baltimore Robin,American Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, House Starling, Eurasian Swallow, Barn Swift, Chimney

I received a lovely Forest Park goody bag…strange that one gets rewarded for enjoying oneself!