This morning, Barbara and I decided to keep the car in the garage and hike Anna Page Park for migrant birds and wildflowers.  We had a terrific morning!  Highlight was a female Summer Tanager in the woods along the south side of Kent Creek on the equestrian trail.  Also there were several nice groups of warblers, including Blue-winged, N. Parula, Palm, Black & White, Nashville, Tennessee, Pine, the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped, Ovenbird, and Northern Waterthrush.  Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and House Wrens were everywhere.  There were quite a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. A Red-breasted Nuthatch is still present and calling from the pines south of the parking lot with the wood chip piles on the west end of the park.  I suspect nesting, but can’t confirm it yet.  A Great-crested Flycatcher is calling from the woods behind our house.

The wildflowers were still in very nice bloom-the phlox are really out now, the Bluebells are still going strong, Swamp Buttercups are still quite fresh, and the large, white trilliums are showing up in a number of places. Wild Geraniums are really in full bloom, and Blue-eyed Marys are in their usual spot near the Camp Conestoga building.  Marsh Marigolds are still in flower, but the Dutchman’s Britches are finished for the season, as is the Cutleaf Toothwart.

An Orchard Oriole was singing from the trees east of, and below, the dry dam.  Quite a few Baltimore Orioles have arrived and are calling.  Only a few Indigo Buntings here so far, plus several Gray Catbirds.  A pair of Red-tailed Hawks were in flight-1 was carrying a snake.  A mink made a brief appearance along Kent Creek.