Here’s a little roundup of Saturday’s return visit to Thatcher Woods. The photo at the top of the post is not from Thatcher Woods but from my front yard as I left the house at 7:30 in the morning. There was an American Goldfinch scavenging the seed heads. It refused to turn around and face me. But it was the closest photo I was to get of any bird for the day.

It was a day filled with Gray-cheeked Thrushes, several flycatchers and more warblers than we had on Monday, although I did not capture them all. So this is a shorter post if not an easier one on the eyes.

I was on time for an 8:00 AM meetup, but I was a bit later than some others who live close by, so I missed seeing a few species. At least I managed to capture the Great Blue Heron that hangs out in the water by the museum parking lot.

We noticed some birds in the wildflowers by the gravel parking lot across the street. I managed to find a Tennessee Warbler when it finally sat out in front of the vegetation.

This might be a different individual – or was it the light?

The first out-of-focus photo below tipped me off to the identity of a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Then we spotted a very distant Black-throated Green Warbler

It was surprising to see an Eastern Phoebe perched so high.

A Magnolia Warbler appeared.

And we saw what for many of us was our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season.

A Northern Parula was again barely visible.

A Rose-breasted Grosbeak appeared for a refreshing change.

Even a House Wren was a bit challenging.

After some debate we decided this was likely an Olive-sided Flycatcher. Flycatchers are notoriously difficult to distinguish, especially the ones we don’t see except in migration.

Below is a perfect Gray-cheeked Thrush, if I am to rely on Sibley’s note that they have “darker and more extensively olive flanks” than the other thrushes.

More Gray-cheeked Thrush photos. I might note that the bird on the ground in the middle I first called out as a Hermit Thrush as I was hoping to see one, but the camera does not lie. However, I did see two Hermit Thrushes yesterday in Riverside. which made me feel better. It could just be I’ve been seeing so many Gray-cheekeds that I’m trying to turn them into something else.

The bird below looks like a Swainson’s Thrush.

The flycatcher challenge continued. The Merlin app seems to think this is a Least Flycatcher, and after checking with my copy of The Crossley Guide which is extremely helpful, I have to agree.

Palm Warblers are starting to show up in numbers, but I have yet to get a good photo of one.

The last bird I photographed was a fly-by Red-tailed Hawk.

Now that I have bombarded you with three posts on the same day, I promise it will take me a while before I return with yet more migration photos. I had 500 photos to go through from yesterday morning. I’ve narrowed it down to 339 on the first pass, but there’s more work to do. Thanks for your patience and endurance!

A side note: there was a celebration event at The Chicago Portage on Saturday which I intended to check out as well, but by the time I got there it was nearly 90 degrees and since I wasn’t participating, I was asked to park at Ottawa Trail and take a shuttle – it was just too much for me. I settled for buying a 50-lb. sack of black oil sunflower seed at The Feed Store and coming home to the air-conditioning, which already seems like a thing of the past, now that we have cooled off so much.