When "cute" comes up and knocks you on the head…

…you take a picture or two! Matty and I saw this little guy on Monday just off the trail and decided he's one of the cutest things we'd ever seen. We promptly named him Harry Jr.

Harry Jr. was stretched out on a tree snag right in front of 

us. His coloring was beautiful and he seemed so at ease. He 

was by himself and eventually slipped back into the snag.

It was very warm and Harry Jr. was lazing in the heat. 

Eventually he turned towards us. “Hello you two,” 

he seemed to be thinking. “Do you want to play?”

Today I decided to risk the rain at lunch and head over to the Little Miami Bike Trail to see if I could find another migrant, so at 11:30 I hit the trail and almost immediately saw two Prothonotary Warblers flitting around…a male and a female!

The male has that beautiful face and pure 

yellow-orange color I love. I wish this were 

a fabulous photo, but it's more of an ID shot.

The female just isn’t quite as bright as the male, 

but still gorgeous.

While photographing the Prothonotaries, I heard the first silvery liquid tones of a Wood Thrush! He was singing in the same place he claimed last year. I’ve never been able to catch a glimpse of him because he stays deep in the woods on the hill, but he’s a hearty singer and hearing his flutey song is enough for me. Of course, omnipresent through all of this were the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. I’m convinced we must have more of them per square inch than any county in the nation! Our woods around the Little Miami River are thick with them, and their buzzy, chatty song is nonstop along the entire trail. Sometimes you really have to concentrate to hear over them, and I was very excited when I heard a Pine Warbler. I watched for movement and soon I saw him.

Ack! Do you need a magnifying glass to see this one?

The lack of sunshine did nothing to lessen the beauty of the woodland trail, and a fine mist hung in the air, lighting each new green spring leaf with a freshness that would have been missed on a bright sunny day. As I continued to walk the trail I heard nonstop warbler song. Many songs I didn’t yet recognize. I’m working hard to learn how to bird by ear, but my brain doesn’t seem to be working quite as hard as my desire. I can listen to the same song 20 times and not be able to 100% place it in the field; however, some songs I have down, so I’m making progress. The songs of Prothonotary Warblers, Pine Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, Northern Parulas, just to name a few, are all as well known to me now as Chickadees and Goldfinch…now I only have 600+ more calls to learn.  ;-)

The Little Miami Bike Trail in mist.