A Special Breeding Season Taking Shape

The park near my new house has more than 3 miles of paved trails that go around athletic fields, though woods and prairies, and along a wetland area. This has become a new regular birding patch for me that I am still learning. I just finished my first spring migration at this patch and am starting to focus on this summer’s breeding birds. Yesterday I covered 100% of the trail for only the 3rd or 4th time, and I was amazed by some special birds I found.

Foggy Fall Creek

This is an interesting time of year for birding in Indiana. It can be simultaneously awful and exciting. The first trees are starting to drop a few leaves, so we just passed peak plant growth for the year. Many species have fledglings and others are in weird post-breeding plumages or are molting. If you can manage to see a bird through the heavy tree cover, it probably does not look like it should.

Prothonotary Warblers

With only two days left of summer break, I needed to get more birding in, rain or shine. Today the weather was all rain, but the birds definitely shined.

Why Are We Here?

In mid-2017, my wife and I put a bird feeder on our back patio in Indianapolis, IN. Within a year, I was trekking through poison ivy-lined trails and pulling ticks off my legs in pursuit of finding new species of birds to identify, observe, document, and learn about. I caught the birding bug, and I feel like now my life will never be the same.