Migration Madness

What were they? I was watching a gratuitous flyover Bald Eagle this morning. He came over low enough to be photographed from the porch without even leaving my chair. Then he sailed slowly, almost ponderously, higher and higher into the dramatic cumulus clouds that soared to the zenith, until he was little more than a lateral speck.

If you look very closely you can see the black speck that is the eagle,
 just a little below the top/center of the cloud. If you click and enlarge the pic you can see him
maybe......

As I watched him to and fro-ing, a few blackbirds scattered into the view field and then very high and far, just a little too far for my binoculars, there they were, sailing right under those same clouds.

They were white. There were six of them. They were not any bird that flies with neck outstretched like a goose or swan. They were heron-sized, but going away, so i could not quite get an outline. The wings were long enough to note the deep curve when they reached the bottom of their slow, heavy wing beat.

Great Egrets? Maybe. I don't know what else looks like that  might be here, but even though I was counting I won't count them....if only I had not been watching the eagle and had seen them sooner.

Meanwhile, here's what I saw over a couple of hours of counting without leaving the driveway around the house and down to the road. I try to go out for an hour every morning, but today I got carried away.

Grey Catbird 4
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 4
American Goldfinch 10
European Starling 11
Tufted Titmouse  2
Black-capped Chickadee 9
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Sparrow 3
American Robin 4
Song Sparrow 2
Wilson's Warbler 2
Eastern Phobe 1
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Cedar Waxwing 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Common Grackle 4
Bald Eagle

And I didn't even go to the barn. Ain't migration wonderful?!?

Black-throated Green Warbler from yesterday

A rare migrant wanna be.......a mama bird on a snowmobile....
probably as close as she will ever get to actually riding one.