[EBB Sightings] Friday's field trip to Jewel Lake

Dear Birders:

A lovely morning at Jewel Lake, cool to begin with but soon warm enough to shed the jacket.  Around fifteen of us climbed up the slope to the Pack Rat Trail.  Wilson's Warblers were with us from the beginning, singing and darting about on the serious business of nest building.  Part way along the trail robins and a male Varied Thrush were feeding on what appeared to be ivy berries. 

The sword ferns are unfurling their new fronds and bright green bracken fern is filling in the open spaces.  Shade flowers included pale dusty- pink trillium and a clump of blue hound's tongue, and lots of solomons seal fringing the path.  Below the trail, in a sunny opening, elderberries are blooming.

And from the trees below we heard the bright, energetic song of a newly-arrived Warbling Vireo (and maybe a short phrase from a Black-headed Grosbeak who along with Swainson's Thrush fill out the compliment later in the month).

Descending to the northwest corner of the lake, the newly-leaved alders contained singing warblers -- possibly a Black-throated Gray and most definitely several of the white-throated Myrtle form of Audubon's Warbler.  To this westerner who has never experienced the Eastern deciduous woods filled with migrating warblers in spring, this small grove of alders was magic enough.

A little water is still running over the dam. Sediment is beginning to settle slowly turning the lake from brown to green. The riparian woodland has lost its ragged winter look -- new leaves transforming the thickets to a fresh, mouth-watering lushness.

Early April is that way everywhere.  My big live oak, hung with gold-tassles and new light green leaves vibrates with birds who are attracted to the insects who are attracted to the new growth.  In fifteen minutes I saw a Yellow Warbler and several Yellow-Rumped Warblers (with vibrant yellow throats), kinglets ready to leave, along with chickadees.  And the neighborhood continues to ring with White-crowned Sparrows singing -- a most unusual event. In my wildflower garden, I have my first-ever blue Phaecilia.

How sweet it is!

Phila Rogers