Home is where the health is--and the birds...6 May 2020

Last night around this time, a huge and violent storm rolled through here, dumping lots of rain really fast, and throwing hail in with the bargain. I hoped that some birds would materialize this morning, because being on the downside of migration, it's been slow the past few days.

The morning started slow, but Rob Dobbs texted that he was seeing stuff across town so I kept my eyes alert. The weather was great, it was a beautiful day, but there wasn't much in the way of birds. The cherry tree with its ripe fruit had a couple of thrushes ducking in and out (I wonder if ducks thrush in and out...), a few eastern Kingbirds flew by, and that was that for migrants.

Cedar Waxwings were zipping around overhead looking for a big berry score,

and the typical egrets and herons passed over head, although when the north wind is blowing the seem to take a different route.

The Mississippi Kites are getting serious about nesting, and a pair (including the 1 year old with banded tail and patchy underwings) was doing crazy aerobatics over the backyard.

One landed on the snag of the cherry tree and didn't seem to mind me snapping pictures.

Then the wind picked up and I went in for a while.

My wife was in our little attic room teaching online, and she sent me a text saying there was a small orange and black bird by her window, so I went back out to see what was there.

I got a nice surprise. There was an orange and black male American Redstart, which was great, but there were also two "female plumaged" redstarts. Then I realized that there were two males; so four American Redstarts.

One of the female-plumaged redstarts appeared to be a female, due to small size, very plain plumage, and rounded tail feathers.The other had a couple of black blotches on the chest, sort of its peach fuzz, which would ID it as a 1 year old male. At the end of the summer, he'll shed his plain garb and the feathers he'll grow in will be orange and black and white.

Within a few minutes, another bit of flycatching caught my eye, and it turned out to be a male Magnolia Warbler.

Then, another bird flycatching its was through my trees, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, a one-year-old male.

Then movement near the ground caught my eye and a Hooded Warbler hopped up and posed.

Then a male Hooded, and then more movement in the trees, and it was a Yellow-throated Vireo.

I ended up adding Black-throated Green Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Scarlet Tanager to the list as they foraged in live oaks or attacked the mulberries and cherries.

Around sundown, a Common Nighthawk flew over, and as it got dark, I heard a Screech Owl nearby, and was able to find it in a live oak hanging over the front yard.

All in all, a pretty good day, and likely one of the last of the good inland migration days.