It was a beautiful Saturday at my house, so I decided that it would be a great day to go kayaking. Luckily I live on a lake, so I just pushed my kayak down the hill in the backyard and into the lake.

I was paddling for about an hour when I heard a bird singing that I hadn’t heard recently. I looked around trying to figure out just where the bird was…

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any binoculars with me (I have trouble birding and paddling at the same time), so it took me awhile to spot the bird. Finally, I saw the bright yellow bird with gray wings fly over to a dead tree. It was the Prothonotary Warbler!

It went into a hole in the tree, probably starting a nest. I was very excited about seeing this Warbler, I only see one every few years. I ended up hearing about 6 of them while I was out paddling that day (maybe next time I’ll take binoculars and a camera with me). 

I don’t have any photos of the Prothonotary Warbler, so I won’t be able to show you just what I was looking at… maybe next time.

I do however have a photo of one of my daily visitors, the Brown-headed Cowbird.

This bird can be found throughout the US and most of Canada and Mexico. It is one of my least favorite birds! The Cowbird will lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, this is called brood parasitism. They don’t make a nest of their own, they only lay eggs in other bird’s nest, usually several nests. Then they rely on other birds to raise their young!