Sunny and mild, a bit breezy.
I bought a new 55-250mm zoom lens for my Canon XTi and decided I wanted to try it out, so I headed over to Mount Auburn to see what was up. I didn’t bring binoculars, as I just intended to snap off a few test shots of the scenery and maybe a couple Robins. So of course it turned out to be my most productive day of birding so far this year. As soon as I parked my car, along the high side of the dell, near the monument to an Irish poet, I noticed a few people gathered looking at a stand of trees. They pointed out an Indigo Bunting to me. He was actually rather plump and healthy looking, and was flying about near the tops of the trees. I snapped off several shots; this one wasn’t the clearest I took, but I enjoy it because he looks like he’s waving to me. In short order our group noticed what others identified as a Black-Throated Green Warbler. I had never seen one before, but took a couple of quick pictures and was later able to confirm it was indeed a Black-Throated Green. I honestly thought it would be greener on top, it’s really just a dark yellow more than anything. Still a pretty bird, it reminds me of a Yellow Rumped Warbler in many ways. Shortly after we noticed another brightly colored bird, this one a Scarlet Tanager again in a similar position as the Bunting. I got a few pictures of him, however none of them came out that good. He only stayed around for a few minutes before heading for parts unknown.
I continued on, and actually came across several Yellow-Rumped Warblers. I often confused them with Mangolia Warblers when I first see them for the season, though the yellow rump is a dead giveaway usually. I actually got a good picture of one of them that you can see at the right here. As I traveled on around the Dell I saw some Black & White Warblers, a mix of both male and female. There were also the omnipresent robins and chipping sparrows that seem to haunt the graveyard en masse each year. I also got a good look at the hawks as well, I need to go over and try to find the nest before the young fledge for the year. I also got a good look at a noisy male Northern Oriole as it sang from the top of a branch near the dell. I haven’t seen many females of any species lately, usually I would assume this was because they were nesting, but even for the species that are probably just passing through I have not seen any females. It’s been a total sausage party for the birds of Mount Auburn so far. 
At this point I decided to go check on the Great-Horned Owls and see how the nest was doing. The young ones have grown quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, it’s shocking. At this point they look like the adults at least size-wise. They are starting to get the tufts above their heads. One of the young ones seems to be larger than the other. The picture at right is of him or her. It’s amazing how fluffy they look at this point in their lives. I took about 50 pictures of them and when I got home could not figure out why all the photos looked so unsharp. It’s actually because of the owl’s plumage, that’s just how they look at this point in their lives. A note about the nest construction: The parents decided to build it out of bramble this year, perhaps to keep predators away? It’s going to be hard for the young ones to walk out on the branches before fledging on account of this however. It’s very hard to get a good look at either of the young owls as well, on account of the branches, vines, and bramble that’s there. As a side note, another observer told me that earlier in the week there was a whole dead Red Fox up in the tree laying over the nest that the birds ate over the course of several days. Good times.
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