When I came back from Texas two weeks ago, the weather in Chicago was fairly pleasant and I mused I could have two springs! No matter that the Saturday before I got home there was snow on the ground. But just as we slipped into May, when it seemed reasonable to expect things would start warming up a bit, northeast winds picked up and although we weren’t freezing, the windchills were in the 30’s. It’s an understatement to say there has been a lot of rain. The downpours have brought most of the trees into leaf and encouraging emerging plant life everywhere. Then, this past Thursday morning, a lot of migrant birds were down from the skies from the previous evening’s rainstorm.
I’m too far away from the lakefront now to go off searching for rarities on my lunch hour, but I took Friday off so that I could scope out the Portage before my bird walk on Saturday. It turned out to be the nicest day of my three-day weekend. Although it started off chilly and windy, when the sun emerged a little before 10:00 AM all was forgiven.
I just finished getting through Friday’s pictures last night – it seemed there were way too many, but I discovered three more species in them to add to the list with a grand total of 54 species, 13 of them warblers. Which isn’t super fantastic but it’s credible for the Portage.
As for the Texas pictures, I managed to send some to Field Guides Saturday night and now with that off my plate I can go back through all of them and start developing for my own purposes. Time, technology and energy being available in inconsistent quantities, this will take me a while.
So in the meantime, here are some of the spring migrants from my walk on Friday, and there will likely be some more from this visit and Saturday’s outing as I try to keep up with everything that seems to be happening this month.
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 
Red-eyed Vireo
Lincoln’s Sparrow 
This is all I can manage for now. I hope to report back soon with lots more!
That’s a decent size gallery, Lisa. I still think that this year is going to be great for all birds. Take care my friend. 🙂
Thanks, H. J. It’s hard to stay inside. Every year is different. I’m just glad we have birds to see. 🙂
I am amazed by how many different birds you see.
It’s only for a couple of weeks out of which I might manage one or two days, but it always feels like the first time I have seen some of these migrants.
Gorgeous! My favorite is the Magnolia Warbler.
Thanks! I love Magnolias too. The males always seem to like the attention.