Cat(bird) on a Hot, Sunny Branch

Gray Catbird
Dumetella carolinensis

After working almost 30 days in a row, I desperately needed some ‘me’ time – and with the weather we had yesterday, I took the morning off to go birding at Palmyra Cove. There were some nice warblers about but it was often hard to hear them over the yellow warblers and the 1,000,001 catbirds about. Lucky for them that they are so darn photogenic.

I got one new bird added to my lifelist (Veery) and 4 first-of-season birds (warbling vireo, solitary sandpiper, white-crowned sparrow, eastern kingbird). And did I mention it was beautiful out?

Sighting List
N. Parula (12+)
American Restart (male) – 2
Black-and-white Warbler – 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler (male) – 1
Black-throated Green Warbler (male) – 1
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher – 12+
Worm-eating Warbler – 1 (same spot as 2 weeks ago, do they breed here?)
Yellow Warbler – 50+
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 2
Common Yellowthroat – 4
Warbling Vireo – 4*
Baltimore Oriole – 20+
Orchard Oriole – 5
House Wren – 20+
Carolina Wren – 5
Eastern Kingbird – 2
Hermit Thrush – 1 (heard 3 others)
Veery – 1*
Brown Thrasher – 3 (1 building a nest)
Solitary Sandpiper – 1*
Great Blue Heron – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Blue Jay – 3
Downy Woodpecker – 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 1
Flicker – 2
Brown Creeper – 1
Song Sparrow – 12+
White-throated Sparrow – 12+
White-crowned Sparrow – 1*
Field Sparrow – 3
Swamp Sparrow – 1
Eastern Towhee – 4
American Goldfinch – 12+
Mallard – 2
Canada Goose – 6
Brown-headed Cowbird – 12+
Common Grackle – 12+
Northern Cardinal – 12+
Tree Swallow – 12+
American Robin – 100+
Gray Catbird – I stopped counting at 1,0000,000poss.
Swainson’s Thrush – need to look closer at the one picture I got

BUTTERFLIES
Cabbage White
Falcated Orangetip
American Lady
Eastern Comma

DRAGONFLIES
Common Whitetail
Common Green Darner (immature)

Completely Unrelated

I just came across this Grace Potter clip on You Tube. It’s her, jazz player Steve Kimock and guitarist Joe Satriani playing a fantastic rendition of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” at last year’s Jammy’s.