Mother's Day Weekend at Hasty Brook

We spent the most beautiful weekend up north at Hasty Brook. We arrived Saturday morning to temps around 70 and perfect breezes. The trees and sky were FULL of birds! The low areas around the creek held huge bunches of blooming marsh marigolds. They glowed even more brightly in the dappled sunlight.

I found many patches of Wood Anemone. They are also called Mayflowers. Most of them have a single white bloom but I found an occasional pink too. The trout lilies were up but not blooming yet. In fact I noticed that the lilacs up there were not open yet but they're nearly done here at home.A pair of yellow-bellied sapsuckers were very busy drilling. The pair was quite loud and vocal with each other. I took 20 pictures of this one hoping it would pop down a bit below the obscuring branch, but no.
Here's an action shot that I liked. If you click to enlarge, check out the feet. Cool!
On to warblers. There were plenty of them in the tree-tops but my frustration got the best of me. So I tried just focusing on the ones that came more readily into view. Here is a Palm Warbler that let me watch for quite a bit while he caught insects in the spruce branches. Other warblers that I got firm id's on

Black and White Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Ovenbird

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The Nashville and Palm Warblers are new for me!

On Saturday afternoon we filled the old bear-bitten feeders to see who might come in for a snack. No takers until Sunday morning when this jewel turned up. I had heard them singing off in the woods. This male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was quite bold, singing and eating just a few feet away from our camp chairs.

I have never noticed the spots before.

A group of 4-5 Red-breasted Nuthatches were the first to notice the seed. These are funny little birds to watch. They too were fearless of us being nearby. A flock of chickadees soon found the seed too. The chickadees were the most fearless of them all. They would grab a seed ,then fly to the picnic table or a camp chair to crack it open. They weren't bothered by our activities at all- in fact one perched about 3 feet away while Art chopped wood.

This White-throated sparrow sang for us all weekend from a birch nearby. He was happy to pick at the seed fallen below the feeders and even came close to check out some potato chips that fell to the ground.

Evening at Hasty Brook is my favorite time. The sounds of veeries and hermit thrushes singing as the sky darkens are quite simply heavenly to me. Saturday evening we were treated to the peents and twitterings of woodcocks! We could hear grouse drumming just beyond the clearing and the loons were yodelling as the flew in to their lakes for the night. I really wish you all could join me there. Hasty Brook really does feed my soul.

My weekend Hasty Brook list:

American Crow

American Robin

Bald Eagle

Black and White Warbler

Black-capped Chickadee

Common Raven

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron

Hairy Woodpecker

Hermit Thrush

Nashville Warbler

Northern Flicker

Pileated Woodpecker

Red-tailed Hawk

Tree Swallow

Turkey Vulture

Veery

White-breasted Nuthatch

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Northern Harrier

Palm Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Ovenbird

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-throated Sparrow

Ruffed Grouse (heard not seen)

American Woodcock (heard not seen)

Mallard

Wood Duck