u/ProgramTricky6109

The biggest one (~9lbs) nearly pulled me down the slippery muddy bank into the river. Fourth of July catfish fry on the menu.

Biggest smallmouth I’ve ever landed 20” and change

I just pick songs that fit my limited vocal range, and that that also work with a 10-hole blues harp, and that my 21-chord autoharp has the chords for.

The orioles, goldfinches, warblers and such in my yard sport more colorful plumage, but the brown thrasher has the most colorful language…

From All About Birds: “An aggressive defender of its nest, the Brown Thrasher is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.

“Brown Thrashers are accomplished songsters that may sing more than 1,100 different song types and include imitations of other birds, including Chuck-will’s-widows, Wood Thrushes, and Northern Flickers.

“At least one early naturalist thought the Brown Thrasher’s song was underappreciated, writing “Much of the [acclaim] which has fallen to the Mockingbird is really due to the unperceived efforts of the Brown Thrasher. It is the opinion of many ornithologists that the song… is richer, fuller, and definitely more melodious than that of polyglottis” (the Northern Mockingbird).”

So far this spring I have helped a dozen turtles (mostly painters, a couple of snappers, and the soft shell pictured here) off the highway before they get flattened by a semi. But I have seen dozens more mashed in the asphalt, and it makes me sad. And I am speaking as a person who gets a turtle license so I can eat turtle soup once a year.

The painters can’t hurt you, but be careful around snappers and big soft shells, who have incredibly long necks, powerful jaws, and can be quite aggressive on land. You can scoot them off the road lifting from the back end of the shell, which is what I did with this soft shell, who scurried off the shoulder and down the embankment to the lake, where she can annoy me all summer by stealing my catfish bait off the hook.

Camera in “4k Photo Play” and slowed down to 1/8th speed. The slowed-down wing beat sounds particularly sinister.

In order of appearance: indigo bunting, yellow headed blackbird, orchard oriole, catbird, great crested flycatcher.

The other evening while fishing at dusk I saw something amazing I’ve never seen before: a “murmuration” of what I think were tree swallows: a cloud of small blue birds, must have been over a hundred, flew in perfectly synchronized swoops out of the trees, catching the light of the setting sun, right past my kayak and out onto the lake.

Hummingbirds have arrived! In order of appearance: ruby-throated hummingbird (male), mourning dove, American goldfinch (male), Baltimore oriole (immature male), rose-chested grosbeak (male).

Hummingbirds should be here any minute…

In order of appearance: Rose-chested grosbeak, Baltimore oriole, goldfinch, brown-headed cowbird, chipping sparrow, black-capped chickadee, pair of cardinals, Baltimore oriole, Harris’s sparrow, blue-winged teal

It has looked so nice out but that bitter wind kept me parked inside by the window with my camera watching the birds. In order of appearance: male and female goldfinches, grackle, European starling, male Northern cardinal, male wood duck (sorry about the poor photo; it was way up there in the branches), red bellied woodpecker, female redwing blackbird, turkey vulture, yellow-rumped warbler, pileated woodpecker.

New arrivals this morning: Rose-breasted grosbeak and yellow rumped warbler. Bad hair day for the cardinal couple, white throated sparrow in the grass.