“by Christopher Myrick – Thursday, April 20, 2017, 5:38 PM
 Bomber day in the woods. We saw a dead frog and a dead turtle. Multiple little insect varieties and some eggs which I will raise as my own. They are in a Gatorade bottle next to an open window to keep the water cooler than room temperature (updates will follow). A great blue heron flew over head as well as some black birds and a hawk. Also Sean ate it in the river. “

…This is a brilliant depiction.  Best of luck rearing the kiddos.  I will add:

hop-hornbeam was in there, with yellowish/crackly bark.  Lots of silver maples in the puddly areas, and a sugar maple.  Lots of black cherry trees.  A few aspens with “sunscreen” bark.

2 river otters, a small crayfish, 2 pre-flight dragonflies.

The 10 most notable birds:

  1. Coopers hawk – Looked like a broadwing hawk or even a merlin (falcon) at first sight, but had a longer, more triangle shaped tail with more horizontal bars then the broadwing, and had straighter wings and a slower soaring flight pattern than a merlin.
  2. Common loon pair – sits low to the water (them solid bones) with a giant, fish-gobbling head.
  3. horned grebe – tiny diving bird with a fuzzy head.  They often are seen (in my personal experience) where loons are floating.
  4. Belted kingfisher – KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA…
  5. goldfinches – ‘potatochip”
  6. song sparrows
  7. downy woodpecker  (NEIGH!)
  8. flicker  (HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA…)
  9. red-bellied woodpecker (bwbwuuraack!)
  10. GHB – in flight, looks like pterodactyl but isn’t, trust me…

-Jess