the Grabers: Birding in May

Last week when I went to our monthly bird walk, I realized that I had made a mistake. They had changed the bird walk to the 2nd Saturday. Al had to be at work at 6 this morning so I had him wake me up before he left. The bird walk this month was going to be early - 6:30.

I was surprised how many "birders" there were so early in the morning. One was a young boy, perhaps 8 or so? His daddy had taught him many things about birds. He knew how to imitate bird calls. Sometimes when he would be making a bird call, we would listen, thinking we were hearing the real thing!

The bird of the day was the Mississippi Kite. We saw many!

Many years ago when Al was biking to work, each day a Mississippi kite guarding her nest would swoop down and bonk him on the head! He took to wearing a hat.

The kite nest is huge!

At first glance you'd think it was a squirrel nest, but it is made of twigs, not leaves.

I love the walk through the woods!

Besides the kite, we heard and saw brown thrashers. They sing in doublets. I didn't get a good picture, but here is one I saw in my backyard.

The Indigo bunting also sings in doublets but the sound is higher. We just stood there and listened to it sing and sing. I wish I could have seen it!! Here is a picture I found online.

We heard more birds than we saw. The leaves hide many of the birds and with the wind this day, many were hunkered down.

The yellow warbler sings "sweet, sweet, I'm so sweet!" I didn't see it, so couldn't get a picture, obviously. But here is what it looks like:

We also saw the red-eyed vireo flying by and listened to it sing. Again, a picture from online.

We heard the rattle of the red-bellied woodpecker.

It is rare that I don't see it on the trail.

I didn't this day but here is a picture of one that was on my deck:

We were at a spot by the river in the woods and the wind was not blowing there. So many birds were singing in chorus and it was beautiful!!

"There's the chickadee!"

"I hear the great crested flycatcher."

"Do you hear the thrasher?"

Here is a picture of a great crested flycatcher from my backyard.

We may not always see each bird we hear, but we learn their calls and Greg teaches us characteristics of the birds. And we tell each other some of the tricks of drawing birds to our backyards.

Back home, I had some birds at my yard.

The male oriole