Another bird walk

This appears to be the Clymene Haploa Moth

The bike path at Les Arends Forest Preserve

I think this is a baby Baltimore Oriole

This baby bird looks like it just came out of the water.

A pair of baby Cowbirds.

Red-winged blackbirds are in abundance.

Juvenile Canada Goose
Look how the markings of the head are beginning to show up.

Parent feeding a juvenile.
Tree Swallow

Turtles sunning themselves on the Fox River.

Baby Red-winged blackbird

The geese were moving right along.

Juvenile Mourning Doves

Male Red-winged Blackbirds.

Woodland Sunflower

Milkweed

Great Spangled Fritillary

Song Sparrow singing his heart out.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Coreopsis

There is another Heron Rookery a bit north of where we live.
I got the opportunity to check it out.  I know there were a lot more nest that we saw before the Spring, but I only saw this one today.
Does not look like any of these have fledged yet either.
Soon.
Have a great day.
Mary

Backyard visitors

Unsure gulls

Kildeer

Chipping Sparrow

We seem to have a lot of bunnies in our back yard.

Female red-winged blackbird.

white-crowned sparrow

White Throat sparrow

Spring is coming

Muskrat was working and getting ready for spring.

Cormorants arrived back in March. Surely spring is coming.

Here is the cream colored mallard female.  This time she is farther south on the Fox River.

 

I was so surprised to see all of these cormorants on the Fox in downtown Oswego.

The grackles have arrived too.

And the red-winged blackbirds.  The yard can get pretty noisy some mornings. 

Birds in the backyard.

Red-winged blackbird, female

Canadian Geese family.  This year there are less families of geese and ducks.  The rains we had the end of April flooded the ponds and area and washed out a lot of nests. The geese have a tendency to build nests on top of  muskrat nests in the ponds in our area.  We have not seen any small geese. This family is has pretty decent size babies.

Cormorants at sunset

Female red-winged blackbird

Tree Swallow  Caught this picture of a  swallow  entering  a bird house to feed its young. It is said they will build nests in a nest box. They will have one brood a year.  They are constantly flying around the marsh area where we live.

American Tree Sparrow

Unknown

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

On the 13th while watching the birds that come to my feeders I saw this  female.  It is a red-winged blackbird.  I have always been under the impression that the female looked just like the male, but that the color on the wings was much duller in color.

Boy have I been wrong.  The female does not look like the male one bit.

Maybe they have been here before, and I just did not know it.

She is pretty in her own right. The female builds the nest and has 2 or 3 broods per year.  The blackbird is the sure sign that Spring is coming.  They are the first to arrive.  The males return first and defend territories.  They will repeat their call from top of cattail while showing off their colorful wings. They build their nests over shallow water in thick stand of cattail. We have a lot of those by us.

This male was sitting on the sign by the entrance to where we live.

We have a lot of grassy land around the senior community where we live.