Eight of us went birding in Schenley Park today and saw lots of cool bird behavior.

In the first fifteen minutes we saw an unusual scarlet tanager — bright orange like an oriole instead of scarlet like a tanager.  We also had good looks at our Best Bird of the day:  a beautiful male rose-breasted grosbeak.

Down the trail we found a tiny sentinel.  A male ruby-throated hummingbird perched high on a dead snag watching his domain.  We also found an Acadian flycatcher on her nest and an American robin feeding nestlings.

After so much rain the creek and first waterfall were running fast.  Last Wednesday’s downpour washed a culvert into the gravel trail that reached right down to the bedrock — a layer of blue-green slate.

In all we saw / heard 29 species.  The complete checklist is here.

p.s. I promised daisy fleabane and we did see it. Whew!

(photo by Kate St. John)