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May 6. Delicate new foliage laces all the trees. Yellow warblers and grey catbirds sing in the meadows beyond Lilac Way, but few other migrant songbirds have returned yet.
May 7. Evening light is fresh and cleansing. At the edge of a garden beside the park I find a yellow morel, Morchella esculenta. Dark-knotted buds are beginning to emerge on the bushes along Lilac Way.
May 10. In early evening, with rain clouds approaching from the south, the pond is bathed in a serene light. A breeze barely ruffles the surface. Budding leaves wash the woods with pale greens and russets. All at once, a few toads raise their eerie cry. Spring moisture has summoned a row of mushrooms from underneath a garden border.
May 11. Toad breeding coincides with the first warm, humid days of May and the full bloom of dandelions. The field is ablaze with them. The river is radiant with warm light and reflections of new leaves. Warbling vireos and rose-breasted grosbeaks call across the river. After dark I return to the pond to hear the toads in full chorus, punctuated by the occasional leopard frog. It's loud, but not as deafening as I heard on a May night three years ago, when the muddy shallows seethed with thousands of restless bodies. Tonight a few dozen sing. Some splash softly around the perimeter of the pond. A pale V moves across the pond under stars and reflected city light: a beaver about its business.
May 12. Leaving the apartment at 7 a.m., I count 35 bird species by sight and ear in a two-hour walk. Of particular interest are double-crested cormorants and purple martins, which I have never seen in this location before. The martins are keeping company with the colony of cliff swallows under Victoria Road bridge. Snails are also out in full force at this dewy hour of the morning. Besides the familiar terrestrial snail with yellow and brown shell, there are slugs and smaller snails with darker shells. Here's the list of bird species observed today:
Double-crested cormorant
Canada goose
mallard
mourning dove
belted kingfisher
downy woodpecker
Eastern phoebe
Eastern kingbird
purple martin
tree swallow
cliff swallow
blue jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
house wren
American robin
gray catbird
brown thrasher
cedar waxwing
European starling
warbling vireo
yellow warbler
Northern cardinal
chipping sparrow
savannah sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
song sparrow
red-winged blackbird
Eastern meadowlark
common grackle
brown-headed cowbird
Northern oriole
house finch
American goldfinch
house sparrow
May 14. Within 11 minutes walking through the corner of the park, my ears are flooded with a sequence of songs. I count 18 bird species by sight and sound. In
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