Here are a few more shots of the veery I encountered on a recent walk in New England. Here is the original For the Birds post.

Birds aren’t the only animals you encounter during walks in the woods in New England. Squirrels, including red and gray, are a common “incidental” sightings.

Photo by Chris Bosak – A squirrel finds a meal in New England, May 2024.

Note: This article was originally published in early May and the story is based on a walk taken on April 29.

It was one of those “quick walks” that ended up being a three-hour birding journey.

I hit the trail shortly after sunrise and was immediately greeted by the awesome cacophony of bird sounds that can only happen during spring migration. The loud voices of cardinals, robins, and Carolina wrens were the dominant sounds. American crows cawed in the distance and red-winged blackbirds belted out their “conk-a-ree” songs from a nearby field. That was all good stuff, of course, but the real auditory treats came from birds with less conspicuous songs.

The softer calls of field sparrows and savannah sparrows emanated from the field, and a high-pitched, nearly inaudible, song came from the top of a maple tree near the parking lot.

It was a warbler, but which one? Since it was the beginning of spring migration and my warbler song identification skills are rusty, it took me a few seconds to realize it was a prairie warbler singing up there.

Well, it’s April and that means we are awaiting the arrival of warblers. It also means taking lots of photos of eastern towhees while we wait. Here are a few of this year’s shots. Their large size and awesome coloration belie the fact that towhees are members of the sparrow family.

Just a few random shots of birds I saw last month. Spring migration is upon us and gaining speed every day. Be sure to be out there to enjoy the show.

It may not be the most technically sound bird photo (none of mine are really), but I kind of like the composition. Song sparrow.

What started out as a bird walk eventually morphed into a different type of nature walk.

I figured I would head to the nearby park a week before the official start of spring to see if any early spring birds had arrived. My main target, as always in mid-March, was American woodcock. As always, I came up empty in that department.

Other birds were scarce as well. The winter ducks had presumably left the ponds for points north. No other spring birds had arrived yet, at least not that I saw that day. I know that eastern phoebes are around right now, and the other day through my window at work I saw a yellow-rumped warbler. But there was no such luck on this walk.

Perhaps against my better judgment, I am going to move forward with an early signs of spring column.

Even as nearly a foot of snow fell in my area a few short days ago, signs of spring are out there. They may not abound yet, but they are out there.

It started a little over a week ago with one of the typical first signs of spring: snowdrops poking out of the ground and flashing their little white flowers. A day or two later, a flock of turkeys walked past my window at work. It was a good-sized flock of about 15 to 20 birds, and, of course, I had to leave my work area temporarily to check out the action.

As I stepped out of a door a fair distance away from the turkeys so as to not disturb their day, I noticed that several of the males were displaying. No matter how many times you’ve seen it before, it is always an impressive sight to see turkeys displaying. They are large birds to begin with, so when their feathers are displayed to intimidate or impress, the birds appear to be that much larger.