Spring finally arrived in early May and with it came the migrating birds that had been stacked up south of Indiana, waiting for warmer weather and southerly breezes. Among them was this Prothonotary Warbler who was singing his heart out. We're not sure why as he was likely hundreds of miles from his breeding grounds, but we enjoyed his songs. For more visitors, see Spring Migrants.

This male Rose-breasted Grosbeak pauses for a bite of sunflower seeds on his way north. He is one of many Spring Birds that we've encountered this month.

These goslings are just a few days out of the egg. They will grow into graceful Canada Geese before summer's end. See Canada Geese for more pictures of nesting geese and goslings.

BOO! Our stray Great Horned Owlet is still in the business of trying to look as intimidating as possible. We paid her a visit at the Animal Resque Haus. See Great Horned Owl for more pictures of her and friends.

Penelope, left, and Junior, right, sit together in the deep woods near dusk. It is rare to see them together, but we have several times in May. Sometimes they groom each other's faces, which looks like they are kissing. See Barred Owls for more pictures and a growing puzzle. For the history of this family of owls, see Barred Owl Family History.

This female Wood Duck is herding her little flock of ducklings about the Killbuck Wetlands. Wood Ducks are ordinarily very shy and difficult to photograph, but this one has allowed us to see her family. For more on this Wood Duck family, see Wood Ducks.

These ducklings are Mallards. They hatched about the same time as the Wood Ducks. While they look similar now, they will look very different by the time they mature. See Mallard Ducks for more of these ducklings, and some swans.

This male Eastern Bluebird has found a meal worm in the feeder and is about to take it to the nest to feed his family. See Country Birds for other pictures by Mick Hardy from rural northern Madison County.

Screen Savers

This month, Birds of Madison County brings you two high resolution pictures. Clicking on one of the images below will cause the corresponding high resolution image to be downloaded to your browser. You may save this image by dragging it to your desktop or using the "SAVE" command on the File menu. These images are large and may require a little time to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connect. The size of the picture in pixels and of the file in bytes is given for each picture.

AOL Users should use Internet Explorer instead of AOL's browser to download these images.

These images are suitable for use as a screen saver or desktop. They may also be printed in large sizes for personal use only.

Female Wood Duck with eight ducklings

A mother Wood Duck shepherds her eight ducklings in the Killbuck Wetlands.

2400 X 1600 pixels; 352K Bytes.

---

Female Mallard Duck with seven ducklings

A mother Mallard guides her ducklings down a swift-flowing stretch of Killbuck Creek.

2400 X 1600 pixels; 512K Bytes.

Award Winning Web Site

We hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to us at this address:

Tom and Jean Harbron

---

Birds of Madison County thanks the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club and Dick Cole for providing the hosting web site.

---

Return to Current Month's Main Page