Goodbye, April. Hello, May.

Time to say goodbye to the wonderful month of April, and hello to the exciting May. The next month should be very exciting for me, but I will talk about it when the right time arrives.

But for now, let's just enjoy the beautiful weather on the last day of the month.

No more bare branches as leaves and buds are popping up everywhere.

A pair of adult Bald Eagle was observed today - both outside their nest. Enjoying a bit of the sunshine, I guess.

From where I was taking photos of the eagles, this Spotted Towhee demanded a bit of my attention as well.

Along the way, I saw a Tree Swallow carrying a feather, but the feather kept falling and the bird kept flying back to retrieve it (while the feather was still on the air). Such an impressive demonstration of their acrobatic flight skills. Sadly, I didn't photograph the moment.

This Barn Swallow did not like posing on wires or nest-boxes. Instead, it opted for a more natural setting. Fine with me.

Calling out

I also saw some kind of Accipiter (probably a Red-tailed Hawk) carrying a smaller bird, but the camera couldn't focus fast enough on the flying bird, so I got two poor images that I won't bother to show here, but thought I'd mention it.

Yep, the Great Horned Owl is still around.

Quite a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers can be spotted in the shrubs beside the slough. Most of them are the western subspecies (from the "auduboni" group) with yellow throats. This bird above, however, does not have the yellow throat. The white throat indicate that it is from the "coronata" group, also known as Myrtle Warblers (Dendroica coronata coronata), the eastern subspecies.

Even though they are insectivorous, they will also eat wax-myrtle berries in winter; hence the name "Myrtle Warbler".

Two pairs of Cinnaon Teals were spotted in the Terra Nova Slough, along with the female Common Goldeneye.

Beautiful Blossoms.
:)