The first Saturday of every month, SLAS, along with Forest Park Forever, organizes a Beginners’ Bird Walk, and the 2nd of May was a great day, when a huge number of birders (54, according to Amy Witt!) met up in the morning, at Kennedy Forest, the wooded area at the southwest corner of Forest Park.

Here are some of the birds we saw:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (a lifer for me)

Barred Owl (another lifer)

White-eyed Vireo (the 3rd lifer!)

White-throated Sparrow: White-breasted Nuthatch: The Downy Woodpecker: The Great Crested Flycatcher: Northern Cardinal: American Goldfinch: Here are some of us: There were also Blackberry flowers: May Apples: Wild Geraniums: Trillium was just about to flower: Here are Liz Barack and Barb Brownell, who've become good birding friends! Here are Bob Bailey, Dave Garcia, and Mark Glenshaw: Here are Bob and Dave talking to Randy Korotev; Bob said he's learnt a lot about birds from Randy, and that's really something!

We agreed that it had been a very productive morning, even though I didn’t know the names of many of the beautiful things I’d seen.