Early morning birding

It was a beautiful early spring morning when Faith, Josiah and I headed out to the Nature Sanctuary for a Spring Bird walk. We were led by Mr. Fred Townsend who brought along quite a library of bird books for us to use, as well as a device to play bird calls.


We headed out along the lake, and Mr. Townsend soon had us stop to listen. He had an amazing ear for bird calls, and could locate (and usually identify) a bird by its voice alone.

Two extremely vocal Canadian Geese landed on the pond and held our attention for a time, before a pretty warble alighted on our ears.

A couple of vivacious little Yellow Warblers were flitting and singing in the tree above us. They let us get quite a good look at them before we both moved on.

On our walk, we identified four different kinds of Warblers (the Cape May Warbler being one of the most unique), but the only other one I managed to snag a photo of, was this cute Blue Winged Warbler. One of the other men in our group aptly called it the "straight up above bird" for the little warbler delighted in making us kink our necks in ridiculous angles to get a peek at him.


Chickadees, Titmice, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers, and multiple varieties of sparrows flitted here and there as we walked through the peaceful woods.

Though it was supposed to be a "bird" walk, I could not resist taking a photo of a Painted Turtle sunning himself on a log. There was a whole row of them, but he was the only one brave enough to stay for a photo session.

Because of another engagement (which I will inform you of in my next post) Mr. Reiche and I left the group early and made our way back to the parking lot. I was glad I had returned when I saw this gorgeous male Red Bellied Woodpecker at the bird feeder. The detailed stripes on his wings are particularly amazing! It was in all a lovely outing, and a delightful time exploring the different species of God's world of birds.

~Chs