Today’s Forest Park Forever/Audubon Society first Saturday bird walk was very rewarding for me. It was great to walk with experienced birders; I saw a variety of Warblers that would otherwise have been Anonymous Brown Jobs!

I walked from home to the Kennedy Forest; on the way, at the golf course, this

SONG SPARROW

opened my birding account (apart from the Mockingbirds, the Robins, the waterfowl, and the Grackles, that is!)

A “showy”

SNOWY EGRET

fished hopefully in Des Perek creek:

As soon as we gathered and started our walk, we came upon the nest of a COOPER'S HAWK The Papaya-like leaves that I'd photographed turned out to be May Apple plants, and this week, they were flowering! Here's a MAY APPLE flower: Amy showed us how she and her team had managed to cultivate a lot of TRILLIUM : I loved the colours on these FUNGI: A DOWNY WOODPECKER hopped up and down a tree branch, quite close to us: We came upon a CAROLINA WREN singing, and it was out in the open, not too far off: here's the video: Amy Witt, who's in charge of the Kennedy Forest, is very knowledgeable...and very helpful with information, too. I call her the Sibley-rumped Naturalist! I think that's a neat way to carry a bird book; in India, I can't do it because of the sweat factor! I've put up photos on a FaceBook album, here The bird list ("earlier" means, as I walked to Kennedy Forest before the trail started.) Blackbird, Red-winged (earlier) Bunting, Indigo Cardinal, Northern Catbird, Gray Chickadee, Black-capped Cowbird, Brown-headed Crow, American Egret, Great(earlier) Egret, Snowy (earlier) Flicker, Northern Flycatcher, Great-crested Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray Goldfinch, American Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Hawk,Cooper's Hawk,Sharp-shinned Kestrel, American (earlier) Kildeer (earlier) Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Nuthatch, White-breasted Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Northern Owl, Great Horned (earlier) Parula, Northern Pee-wee, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Redstart, American Robin, American Sparrow, House Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Tanager, Summer Thrasher, Brown Thrush, Swainson's Titmouse, Tufted Vireo, Red-eyed Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Palm Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow-rumped Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy (earlier) Woodpecker,Red-headed Woodpecker,Red-bellied Wren, Carolina

Here’s the group, peering into the trees at all the Parulas, Vireos, and Warblers identified for us:

A big thank you to Ruth Hartsell, who gave me quite a welcome ride home..this meant I was able to catch A and KTB and go swimming with them, too, rounding off a perfect morning!