Wednesday morning was cloudy after some overnight storm activity accompanied by a measure of rain. I decided to put on my Wellies so I could walk through Riverside Lawn without worrying about the mud.

I started out walking the paved trail on the Swan Pond side of the river and didn’t hear or see much of anything until suddenly an adult Red-tailed Hawk landed on a branch of a big cottonwood tree. One of its likely offspring followed, flushing the parent, and then took off after it.

I don’t think I saw much of anything else until I crossed the swinging bridge and started walking into Riverside Lawn. I found a new dragonfly for me – a Russet-tipped Clubtail. Shortly after that, I started to see some warblers.

I puzzled later over this warbler that I think turned out to be a Pine Warbler. This is the confusing part of fall warbler migration.

I had a Bay-breasted Warbler for good measure. These were the earliest specIes I saw last week.

Then there were at least two Black-and-White Warblers.

A Swainson’s Thrush appeared on a branch, and later on the trail.

Through a tiny window I spotted a female Northern Cardinal with a wormy catch.

Four Cedar Waxwings were considering their options.

In the Riverside Lawn woods, I encountered a young Common Yellowthroat who seemed to be as glad to see me as I was to see it. This individual is also at the top of the post.

Then I began to see more Black-and-White Warblers.

A Red-eyed Vireo stopped moving just long enough.

And I found another Bay-breasted Warbler.

Tennessee Warblers have been showing up all week. These were a little harder to see.

I was delighted to find a glimpse of a Golden-winged Warbler in my photos.

And I barely captured a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

As I walked out of Riverside Lawn, I found an American Redstart foraging low.

And then coming out of the woods, a Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead, motionless.

Here are a couple more photos of my friendly Common Yellowthroat.

Fall migration doesn’t feel real until we start seeing warblers, so this was a good start. With winds coming from the north the next few days, I expect to see more birds and, with luck, more species. Keeping up with them all in the blog will be a challenge. I started this post three days ago… and I’ve seen more birds since.

On the home front, I need to do a lot of yard work to catch up on what I didn’t want to do in last week’s extreme heat. And of course everything has overgrown that much more. But this is turning out to be a blessed, beautiful weekend with cooler temperatures and sunshine. I treasure these fleeting moments when everything seems possible.