My Big Month - Day 17

It was back to Palmer Lake Park for today's birding outing. Unfortunately it was raining just enough to make it difficult to keep my camera dry. My newest trick for this is to use my winter hood like a big sock over the camera and lens. It works but it's a pain in the butt to get to the controls quick enough. Later on the rain kind of fizzled out and so I was able to ditch it. My walk started off good as the first tree under which I parked housed a Blue-headed Vireo. He wasn't coming out into the open for a photo but I could at least tell what he was. The rain seemed to bring out all kinds of birds this evening and I will have a fairly substantial list below. A couple of highlights were spotting another Wilson's Warbler, and also seeing my first Bluebirds at the park this year! I got poor photos of both of these species but is nice to say that I saw them. I spotted both a male and female Bluebird together so it is a good sign that maybe they will be nesting somewhere in or near the park. I also saw a Chestnut-sided Warbler later. One bird I saw a fair amount of tonight were Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. Pictured here is the first one I saw. Later I saw a female gathering nesting material and then another male behind her that looked not quite as handsome as this one. I think maybe it was immature as there were flecks of white over his breast and also over his black head. Oh also wanted to post a 2nd photo here tonight though at the moment I don't have a positive identification. I'm asking for help on my flickr page and hopefully I might have another new species to add to my "Big Month!" P.S. Second photo was positively identified as a Tennesse Warbler!

Total species seen today: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Bluebird, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Palm Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow, American Goldfinch, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Gray Catbird, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Ring-necked Pheasant, Baltimore Oriole, Great Blue Heron, Sandhill Crane, Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose and Tennessee Warbler.

Conditions: 55 degrees, overcast with light rain