May 16th.  I get really annoyed when someone picks a wildflower and then discards it along the trail.  I'm especially ticked when it's one, like this Trillium, that isn't especially common.  (If you want to pull up Garlic Mustard by the root and by the bushel, be my guest!)  Perhaps it was picked by a child, and perhaps done in a moment of parent inattention - but if so, at least see that once picked, it is taken home and put in water, not discarded.

 

Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar variegatum).

 

 

 

Female Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula).

 

A little further down the trail, a pair of Orioles have a nest.

 

A female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).

 

The male is quite a contrast from the female.  Note the beige tick near this bird's eye.

 

Lots of activity from the Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kingbirds have a nest at the top left of this tree.

 

 

 

Thanks to photographer and birder Rick G. for alerting me to these nests.

 

It takes a lot of tugging, pushing, and shoving to make a nest.

 

A female Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia).

 

Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).

 

 

 

 

 

A wild Mustard (Brassica sp.).

 

 

 

First damselfly I've seen this year.  This is a female Aurora Damsel (Chromagrion conditum).  The yellow markings on the metathorax are distinctive.

 

A Bumblebee (Family Bombidae) on Morrow's Honeysuckle.

 

Various kinds of bee were taking pollen frfom Dandelions.

 

 

 

Dandelions are loaded with pollen when they open.

 

 

 

May 17th.  A thrush; best guess is a Veery (Catharus fuscescens).  Help?

 

A Warbling Vireo? (Vireo gilvus).

 

 

 

On the north side, roughly half way between the bench and the beaver dam, note the re-sprouting damaged maple on the left of this pair.  About half way up there is a recent woodpecker hole.  Rick tells me that it houses an active nest.

 

The hole is incredibly round.

 

A little further west - well beyond the beaver dam but still on the channel side - is this maple.  You can distinguish it by the long-dead tree across the channel which leans into it.

 

Towards the top right of that tree (and dead center in this photo) is the Baltimore Oriole nest I photographed yesterday.

 

Here it is again.

 

Today the female was lining the nest with fluff - probably from cattail heads.

 

Back at the Kingbird nest in the oak just west of the bench (the only bench in the marsh, and one of the very few along the trail), construction continues.

 

While the Kingbirds were away, I saw a Yellow Warbler sneak in and swipe some fluffy lining material for its own nest.

 

Seconds later, a female Oriole took a turn raiding the fluff.

 

 

 

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) is in bloom.

 

Late afternoon light highlights Pony Lily blossoms and pads.

 

 

 

May 18th.  Woodpecker peeking from its nest hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen.

 

A female Baltimore Oriole robbing fluff from the Kingbird's nest - again today!

 

Kingbird soldiers on, adding more lining and poking it into place.