As May develops, I’ve been seeing or hearing a welcome variety of migrating or in-for-breeding-season birds here in either the home patch or nearby John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. Highlights include a Whip-poor-will heard near the house, as well as Ovenbird, Redstart, Parula, Prairie, Black-throated Blue, Black and White and Yellow-rumped warblers. Towhees, Baltimore Orioles, Swifts, Kingbirds and Great crested Flycatchers have arrived, and I heard a Scarlet Tanager. Catbirds are back, thank goodness, A very high up Bald Eagle went over. At Heinz, a few more to the mix, either heard or seen or both: Black-throated Green, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, and Yellow Warblers, an invisibly singing Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Northern Waterthrush. I’ve also been seeing both Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Green Heron, and Osprey there.
From the homestead, a sunlit Yellow-rump:
And from Tinicum, a shadowed Yellow:
