The seven days from May 3 to 9, presented here, ended with this beautiful Hermit Thrush in Etna. If you look closely you can see two pieces of snow on the right side of this photo.
May 3 found us in Hopkinton and Springfield, NH where I found a Blue Jay and a Great Blue Heron on a newly-built nest.
Back in Etna on May 4th, we had a few nice birds: a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a White-throated Sparrow, and an Eastern Phoebe putting the finishing touches on a nest on a platform I built under our garage eaves.
May 7th was the day for Yellow-rumped Warblers along the rail trail at Ice House Road in Lebanon.
This location is very reliable for Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireos, American Redstarts, and Gray Catbirds. To start my collection of Mimics for the day, I photographed some catbirds there May 8th.
Chris Rimmer suggested I could find 3 Mimic species at KW South in Wilder, VT, so I headed there May 8th. But first a White-crowned Sparrow jumped in front of my lens.
Then I found Brown Thrashers. Such a beautiful bird.
The Catbirds were not as predominate as across the river, but I got one Gray Catbird singing, or talking.
I struck out on the mockingbirds, but got lucky and ran into Chris Rimmer in Norwich when Jann and I went there to hike one of our favorite loops in the afternoon. He told me where I might find the mockingbirds. So, after our walk, I dropped Jann at home and headed back to KW South. Found them right off. Surprised I missed them in the morning. Here are the Northern Mockingbirds.
While there I also got some common but colorful birds.
Spring was in the air. I found Bloodroot, Magnolias, and Bluets as I explored the Upper Valley.
But then our hopes for warm days were dashed as our yard was full of snow on May 9th. Here are a few photos from early that morning.
Spring will come. Eventually. Maybe. And maybe with summer we will be slightly behind Covid. We will be back to near normal, new normal ?, when the warblers return, as always, next spring.