Bird Walk April 11,2012- Radnor Lake, Nashville,Tennessee

The early leg of the walk yesterday morning was hand-numbingly cold. What good are field glasses and camera when one has to keep ones hands shoved into jacket sleeves?

But bird people are hardy, and away we went on this walk sponsored by the Nashville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. Even a baby, strapped to his mother's chest, made the full tour around the lake. And this baby was born to bird. The wild turkeys made more noise than this infant did-

His two sisters and his brother were there as well,with cameras and binoculars. And let it be said that despite their age and size, these kids were no amateurs. When we met a millipede on the way back on Otter Creek Road, the older boy pulled out a measuring tape to prove the many legged one was three inches long-

Along the way we saw a wood duck pair going in and out of their nest in a tree hole. We saw a gang of young male turkeys running together. One was pied- cream and chestnut colored. My low battery camera cut off just as I aimed to shoot. But a woman on the walk said she had heard about this strange bird , and had seen it herself a few days before. What this bird's chance of mating is I do not know. Probably not good, since he is a non-conformist in a species of bird that live in flocks.

We saw a large flock of Chimney Swifts, heard a few early warblers, and saw rafts of scaups, coots, pied-billed grebes, and blue-winged teal. I was happiest to see a Louisiana Waterthrush bobbing along the rocks in a brook near the park Nature Center.

And the blooming red shrub in the first photo is a Red Buckeye.


*Note the poster about the Steve Winwood concert to benefit the lake. I would bet the money will go to trying to buy more land around the lake to protect it from new 3 million dollar houses on the ridge tops. And to pay for lawyers to challenge a pipeline someone wants to run through the park.