Greensboro Birds

The past few days have seen early morning warblers beginning to pass through the yard. It’s my habit to grab a cup of coffee and wake up with it on the patio in the wee-ish hours while watching the chickens and the birds. Here’s what I’ve seen recently from the comfort of my chair (I’m such a lazy birder!):

• American Redstarts: Lots of females, typically finding tasty treats in the sweetgum trees and arrowwood viburnum.
• Pine Warblers: These hang out here all year, but typically make themselves scarce until fall migration. Had a very nice sighting in the holly this morning. Looks like another great year for holly and other berries, by the way; the native hollies are weighed down with lots of green berries, and our pyracanthas are already jam-packed with ripe, bright-orange berries.
• Black and White Warbler: This was a first for the yard! Spotted this morning, it was creeping nuthatch-like up the trunk of a pine tree, then dropped down for a splendid appearance on the fence.
• Magnolia Warbler: In immature fall plumage, this warbler flitted around in the viburnum for a few minutes. Nice! If you can get a stand of southern arrowwood viburnum going on your property, you will be rewarded with many bird surprises.
• Common Yellowthroat: A female dropped in a few days ago, just long enough to get my attention before moving on.

No photos, unfortunately. Early morning is not when my fine motor skills shine.

In other news, I ran my first-ever 5K on Saturday, in the Eden Riverfest 5K! My time was 37:04, which was by no means with the front-runners, but not entirely last. An 8-year-old girl clad in denim capris, however, did cross the finish line a good 10 seconds before me, but of course she has yet to acquire the weight of the world on her shoulders. My next public feat of athleticism will be in October at the Lexington BBQ Festival’s Hawg Run. I’ll run many miles for a slow-roasted pig.