It's (Almost) All About the Birds

After a solid year of monthly posts I fell off in April. Working long hours every week has relegated my photography to weekend hobby status. The long-awaited spring greening of the landscape is an absolute favorite event of mine. But, it’s May’s dramatic influx of migratory birds that has most drawn my lens this spring. So it’s these captivating creatures that will dominate this post, after I kick it off with another kind of delightful vertebrate.

This tiny Red Eft was a most welcome preview of the mass movement of these juvenile Eastern Newts that takes place every summer in the Northern Forest.

One dark morning early this month was brightened for me by the realization that Black-throated Blue Warblers had returned.

The throat of males is also part of the namesake for Black-throated Green Warblers. After chasing this guys songs through the canopy for more than a few minutes I lucked out when he alighted in a Sumac just ten feet away from me.

Also presenting himself in the late-to-leaf-out Staghorn Sumac was this Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler.

The Warbler game mostly involves craning one’s neck to scan the canopy from which a male’s song is emanating. Frequently one must settle for audio identification, but the relative lack of foliage in early May and this Black and White Warbler’s choice of singing perch enabled me to catch him in the act.

Pine Warblers do live up to their names, and I generally fail to spot the songster high in a White Pine. But foraging for insects brings many of the upper-canopy-singing warblers closer to the ground. I was very pleased to get this Pine Warbler shot in a flowering and leafing-out Paper Birch. Catkins of male flowers dangle below him and the remnants of last year’s seed “cones” are at his head level. Note also that if this tree was done leafing out this warbler would not be visible. The first couple weeks of warbler season affords the best views.

The biggest float in my spring warbler parade was presented by Northern Parulas. I was hearing, and even seeing, them so much earlier this month. Here a male sings in a Speckled Alder. The catkins behind him belong to a Willow.

So strong was my Northern Parula mojo that I even got a good look at this female, without the benefit of song to point me in the right direction. Although it was almost certainly the song of the guy in the previous picture that drew this little beauty to an Aspen branch in the same thicket. The plumage of female warblers is a less-colorful variation on that of the males, with that of some species having little or no bright colors at all, but the lady Northern Parulas are nearly as colorful as the males.

Closing of the warbler section of this post with an Ovenbird singing the ubiquitous “teacher teacher TEAcher TEACHER” of spring and summer in deciduous and mixed forests of the northeastern United States. Ovenbirds are one of a few outlier species in the Wood Warbler family that have thrush like appearances and habits.

For actual thrushes today i have for you this Veery, who granted me my closest yet looks at this often-heard denizen of Vermont woods.

Less often heard and rarely seen is the Wood Thrush. This guy’s truly enchanting song drew me like the piping of Pan, but I held little hope of beholding the feathered minstrel. The Spirits of the Forest smiled on me this day though, and I am very happy to share my first look at a Wood Thrush with you.

While I am indeed a woodsling, I am hardly allergic to the rivers, ponds and streams that so beautifully punctuate the forested landscape. The water draws me just as it does birds who are not at home in the deep shade of the forest. As strict pescivores Osprey bound to the bodies of water that feed them. I barely managed to get a couple pictures of my first Osprey of the year (they also migrate north to breed). But what a way to kick off Osprey season. She had just pulled this beautiful trout out of the Waterbury Reservoir.

Almost immediately after being dazzled by the Osprey I spotted the distinct silhouette of my first Loon of the year 10 yards across the water. A mate was soon revealed too, and both thankfully made their way closer to me between dives.

Back to the woods we go, with yet another first of year in then form of this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak in a Red Oak. He was o good ways off, but much closer than the only other one I have managed to photograph.

Well ahead of the mostly May arrivals of the birds above was that of the Eastern Phoebe, our most familiar flycatcher in the northeast, but for added color I share this one in the early-May flowering and leaf-out of a Gray Birch.

And now I close this set of images with the stunning beauty of a Common Grackle in a Quaking Aspen. The high-key exposure required to get feather details on an overcast day revealed her shimmering blue hood.

Thanks for joining me, my friends. If these birds gave you just a touch of the joy they did me then It was well worth the time (mine and yours). A bit of related news before I go: on Global Big Day, May 10th 2025, the announcement of said day on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin app prompted me to have my first go at a Big Day. I was going to be birding anyway, so I decided to see how many species I could identify in one day. Better birders than myself have much bigger Big Days than my first, but after a long and thoroughly enjoyable day of birding I had seen and/or heard forty-four species. For those interested I will list them below. Until next time, I wish you many encounters with wild others, and glimpses of wild self they grant.

Black-capped Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Ovenbird, American Crow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, Pine Warbler, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Gray Catbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, American Robin, European Starling, Mallard, Turkey Vulture, Song Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Bluejay, Common Merganser, Osprey, Spotted Sandpiper, Common Loon, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Ruffed Grouse, Downy Woodpecker, Chipping Sparrow, Canada Goose, Veery, American Redstart, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pileated Woodpecker, Black-throated Green Warbler, Brown Creeper, Wood Duck, Northern Flicker, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Wood Thrush!