A Good Day for Birding

It was by far the best day for birding during the Spring migration on my walk thought the woods. I had just finished mowing grass and while taking a break I saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak on one of the feeders. My first of the season. I thought that more Spring migrating birds might be around so I headed for the woods.

A brilliant Indigo Bunting feeding along a fence row with a couple of Northern Cardinals was my first sighting. I could hear a Carolina Wren calling and another song that I thought was a vireo. It got closer and closer and with a few squeaks I got great looks at a White-eyed Vireo. While squeaking up the vireo a Gray Catbird popped up from some heavy brush. There was some movement above, it was a female Summer Tanager. Hey, this is getting good. I stood in that one spot for a while but never saw another migrant.

Headed back to the house to see a pair of Mississippi Kites soaring overhead. A Red-bellied Woodpecker worked on excavating a nest cavity in an old pine tree not from the Pine where the Red-shouldered Hawks are nesting. I did manage to see a single chick on the nest. Might have been more but could only see the one. Not much else other than the regular crew of Carolina Chickadees and such. Did have a dozen Chimney Swifts fly overhead along with a lone Yellow-billed Cuckoo.