May is prime birding season in Ohio, with the neotropical migrants coming through, local birds nesting and gifting us with lots of adorable babies, and goldfinches showing off their ridiculously gorgeous breeding plumage. Yesterday's perambulations of two urban parks (okay, large parks, in the multiple hundred of acres) brought sightings of two species of woodpeckers, lots of finches, blackbirds, bluebirds, indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers, and at least one magnolia warbler. Of course, none of these birds would sit still to be photographed.
A return to the larger of the two parks this morning was a birding bust. The day was gray and misty, and the birds were hanging out in the trees or leaf litter and trying not to be seen, though their calls were everywhere. Still, no park perambulation is ever wasted.
Misty mornings are fine times to view a wet meadow,
and the approach to the Ellen Biddle Shipman-designed formal garden was perhaps even more romantic than usual.
Droplets from last night's rain were still hanging on an old copper beech
and the fallen blossoms of cherries and crabapples were making quite a lovely mess.
A tree of a species I did not recognize (locust, maybe?) was trying to grow leaves right out of its trunk,
and its bark was a world of its own.
Not a bad way to spend an hour or two.
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