Turkey Vultures

Yellow Warbler preening

Look closely and you'll find the Palm Warbler.  

The birding on Kelly's Island wasn't the most spectacular we've ever had, but it was an adventure and every bird we worked for was a gift!  Baltimore Orioles and Yellow Warblers were in great abundance!  We were able to see a few other warbling migrants as well.  I have to say my favorite sighting may have been this guy...

I can hear you all saying, "Eeeeeewwwwwwww!!"  Come on!  They are majestic in flight, they have a keen sense of smell and they like to huddle together...okay around road kill!   Think how much they do to keep our roadways and countrysides clean and healthy.  They really are a pretty awesome bird.  I only got the picture of one of these "beauties", but on a lower ledge there were several of them.  We were within twenty feet of them.  Some in our party felt a bit uneasy and we tried to give them wide berth as we passed by.

The area we passed through was part of the North Quarry on Kelley's Island.  It was a very desolate lonely section of the island.  It made me feel as though I was exploring a new planet with my crew from the Star Trek Enterprise.  I wish Scotty could have beamed us out of there because it was a loonng boring trek through an area with very few birds!  Here are some of the highlights we saw, though...

We would have to go across this to get back to our point of entry!

Nice fossil remains

Beautiful wildflowers!

We were pretty tired and weary after this long and grueling adventure so this looked pretty good to us when we got back "home"!

I'd rather be birding,

Jenny