Spring and Early Summer Highlights: Part II

Here's a continuation of the previous post, with more highlights from April, May, and June of this year. And it turns out I still have too many things to share, so this will actually have to be three posts, not two!

More Birds

Spring was very slow to advance this year, with freezing temperatures and occasional snow all the way through mid-May. (Our last snow was on May 12.) The migrating birds still showed up in early May as usual, though, which led to some strange sights, like this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak amid falling snow:

A flowering quince shrub in our yard bloomed fairly early in May despite the cold weather, and its blossoms were a big draw for some nectar-seeking birds. Here's a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoying these blossoms on May 17:

Bare branches on another nearby shrub made great perches for little hummingbird feet in between trips to the flowers -- I love how sassy she looks in this photo:

A male hummingbird was hanging around, too, and actively courting the female. I didn't get any pictures of his fancy dives, but he was also nice enough to perch for a couple of photos in between trips to the flowering quince:

In this next picture, I love how the light bouncing off of his feathers has turned the underside of his beak red:

Baltimore Orioles were also frequent visitors to the quince blossoms; here's a brilliant male from May 16:
 

The number of bird species we've seen or heard on our property has continued to climb. Birds #107 and 108 (I still can't believe we're in the 100s!) were the two cuckoo species: Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Black-billed Cuckoo. In previous years, I've suspected that I was hearing cuckoos calling occasionally, and this year in early June I finally learned and confirmed these two species' calls. Confirmation of these species by ear was about as much as I thought I could hope for, but then a day or two afterward, both species each flew out into clear view and showed themselves. I didn't have my camera handy for the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (a bird I'd only seen once before, way back in 2011 in Connecticut), but here's a distant and partially-obstructed picture of the Black-billed Cuckoo, a totally new bird for me:

I managed to wander outside and look/listen for migrants nearly every day in May this year (a definite benefit of working from home). Ruby-crowned Kinglets were common and surprisingly loud visitors. Here's one of these cute little birds on May 1:

Black-and-white Warblers are so fancy, and I saw them fairly frequently this spring (and at least one pair has stuck around over the summer and is probably breeding somewhere out there). This male was foraging on a fallen tree in the woods on May 2:

And here's a male on May 16 showing off his gravity-defying tree-climbing skills:

These birds are gorgeous, but I think they look really strange when viewed head-on:

A flock of male Yellow-rumped Warblers lit up the still leafless woods on May 10:

A male Cape May Warbler foraged in a pine tree next to our driveway on May 17:

And on May 15 I felt extremely lucky to come across a male Black-throated Blue Warbler foraging right at ground level in the woods, and near the path. I suspect this is the closest I will ever get to one of these handsome birds, and is that not the most perfect color of slaty-blue on his head and back?
 

That's enough for now, but we're still not done catching up with spring and early summer! Stay tuned for Part III!