... Melting my heart

I decided to head out to the Paulinskill WMA early this morning, armed with camera and binocular. My goal was to finally get a good shot of a Yellow Warbler (which I did - HERE!) But the warbler will have to wait for another day to be blipped because the moment for me was when I looked out into the marshy area alongside the trail and saw a doe giving her baby a thorough bathing. As I slowly aimed the camera and fired off a few shots, she looked over at me ... and then the fawn looked over its shoulder at me. And I was a goner. The fawn is very young and if you look LARGE you will see that its eyes are still new-born blue. I watched them for several minutes, until mom lead the youngster off into the reeds. A moment worth blipping.

Actually, it was a morning of plenty. I saw a pair of Baltimore Orioles flitting around and realized that I was looking at their nest! It was hanging from a limb about 30 feet overhead, tucked behind some leaves. Amazing that I saw it at all. Dad Oriole put on a rather impressive show, including an underwing check..

There were freshly minted damsels and dragons everywhere which made for very happy birds. Here is a red-winged blackbird female with a calico pennant dragon and another with andamsel in distress. I watched a rather large flycatcher (possibly a kingbird) catching dragons over a swampy area - it was impressive and way to fast for my lens. I also saw a pair of swans with 7 babies - let's just hope the carp and snapping turtles done get them all.

Here is the view along part of my walk - it's rather lovely, isn't it?

Thank you for your lovely comments on yesterday's bluejay on the wing. They give me so many chuckles and are always a joy to watch.

Happy Tuesday...