First day back and it was GREAT!

Palm Warbler

This was my first day back at Nahanton after a very long stretch. It was 50 degrees at 7:00 a.m. and sunny.

I was greeted by tree swallows who were dipping and diving and who had already staked out their nest boxes for the season. Yellow warblers were singing everywhere and courting each other. It was such a cheerful scene and I must say I was really happy to be back!

Robin

Saw some black and white warblers and several palms. I don't think I ever saw so many at one time. They were all over the crabapple in the center of the lower gardens. Goldfinches were chasing each other. I had just seen a catbird in my yard the day before, but at the park, there were several. I had to take a picture of this one because it looked so very happy peering out from this crabapple near the path to the upper gardens.

Catbird

There were titmice near the golf course side and red-winged blackbirds staking out their territories. Later, when I ran into Haynes and went back to the lower gardens, there were savannah sparrows, a female oriole, cardinals, chickadees and yellow rumps.

Red-breasted grosbeak

I headed to the upper gardens where there were more black & whites, mourning doves and robins but a certain song caught met attention. I looked up and there was a beautiful male red-breasted grosbeak. As he flew off, I saw he was chasing another male. Also saw a female. Chimney swifts flew overhead.

High in the oaks were some blue-gray gnatcatchers making their little buzzy noises and flitting about. I could hear an eastern phoebe calling from the woods. Chipping sparrows chipped away. A couple of house wrens were clearly back as evidenced by their bubbling babble!

House wren

Down by the soccer field we saw a parula, heard warbling vireo and ovenbird. The river yielded several eastern phoebes and I was glad to see that they are back to nesting on the nature center eaves. They didn't like it when it got repainted and stayed away for a season. We saw more blue-gray gnatcatchers, yellow rumps, a ruby-crowned kinglet and a blue jay.