The morning of April 30th dawned cool, gray and drizzly.  In spite of the gloomy conditions, nine hardy birders convened in the Roaring Brook Nature Center parking lot at 6:30 am to search the forest and fields for migrants and for resident species.  After watching a “people=acclimated” hen turkey eating peanut bits on a picnic table, the group set out along the trail to the songs of a variety of species including house wren, Louisiana waterthrush and chipping sparrow.  The black vulture that comes to the Center every morning to visit the captive vultures was sleeping in today, so our group headed directly to the field edges that are often good for migrants at this time of year.  Along the way, we heard our first ovenbird of the season, and were treated to the song and a decent look at a brown creeper “creeping” up the trunk of an oak.  The field edges provided looks at a variety of species including a male eastern bluebird feeding its mate, and a phoebe looking for insects as it hovered over the field, then returned to its perch flicking its tail.  The songs of black-and-white and black-throated green warblers alerted us to a small warbler wave, but most of the birds proved to be the expected yellow-rumped warblers, one of our earlier warbler arrivals.  Traveling across Bahre Corner Road, we encountered a more sizeable group of warblers, but alas, the birds were high in the trees, and the visibility was so poor that the majority of the birds were nothing more than silhouettes.   We continued along the wooded trails, adding such species as blue-headed vireo, blue-gray gnatcatcher and pine warbler. It is evidently a good year for the Louisiana waterthrush on this property, as we encountered at least a half dozen of these birds loudly singing to stake out territories along Jim Brook and around Werner Pond.  We also enjoyed numerous woodland wildflowers blooming along the trails.  Returning to the Nature Center building, we went inside to shake off the cold and damp, and to add up our checklist for the walk.   One member of our group lingered outside but for a minute to check off the American robin that had, to this point, eluded us.  Total species for the trip was 31, and a full eBird checklist is available.

Jay Kaplan, Trip Leader