Mother's Day at Nahanton

Baltimore Oriole

Sadly, due to the corona virus restrictions, the traditional Mother's Day Bird Walk was cancelled. But I had to go to the park anyways. It was chilly, but sunny.

House Wren Singing

7:15 a.m. and 37 degrees. Started in the lower gardens. I was greeted by blue jays, robins, titmice, cardinals, song sparrows and yellow warblers. It was cold and the tree swallows were warming on a sunny tree branch. A female blackbird was foraging in the large crab apple tree.

Oriole Nest

The house wrens are back in full force and trying to claim houses from the tree swallows who got there before them. Lots of oriole couples and 1 year olds where the black coloring had not reached full intensity. However, for at least the third year in a row, they are building a nest in the same tree. I watched as they were close to putting the finishing touches on the nest. They sure work quickly - only arrived last weekend.

As I started to head up to the upper gardens, I heard a buzzy noise and was hoping for a Northern Parula, I did not see it, but did see a Common Yellowthroat male! That was a surprise and made me very happy. I love them. Canada geese flew overhead.

Black & White Warbler

In a similar location last weekend, I saw a black & white warbler, so I'm including it's photo here.

The upper gardens had tree swallows, house wrens, catbirds, downiest, red-winged blackbirds, goldfinches, song sparrows, house wrens, chickadees and a kinglet in the brush at the back.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

As I headed down to the soccer field through the woods I caught a quick glimpse of a hermit thrush! And a morning dove... And then heard the wonderful song of a wood thrush singing near the pond.

Aside from robins on the soccer field, I only managed to see a red-bellied woodpecker near the pond.

Wood Thrush Singing

Walking along Florrie's path, I came upon a Yellow-rumped Warbler couple. The male was flitting here and there, but I managed to get a quick shot of the female. In the swampy area to the right of Florrie's path was a mallard swimming around since all the rain made a nice little pond for him as a phoebe watched from the surrounding brush.

Wood Thrush

Woodcock meadow had blackbirds, orioles, robins and house wrens. I decided to look in the area where Haynes has seen fox sparrows when I heard an interesting song that I couldn't recognize. I took me the longest time to find the bird, but I finally found it! It was a wood thrush. I wonder if it was a young one because the song didn't sound quite right. But I had a great view of it and then it flew down to a low branch almost right in front of me!


Continued on the path near the JCC where I have now located 3 lady slippers. One has a bud on it. I seems to me that in past years, we have had more so I'm not sure why it is so sparse this year.

Lady Slipper Emerging

It turned out to be a great day at the Park and made my Mother's Day a real treat in light of all the negative things going on at the moment.

Mother Nature is truly amazing. We are so lucky to have Nahanton Park in our city. It truly is a treasure.

Put on your mask and come visit! And if you bring your dog, please keep it on a leash.