Quel bon vent

Every year, in early May, there's a day when everything arrives at once.  Yesterday, the 11th, was that day.  I clocked four species of warbler:  yellow-rumped (above); Cape May:

...northern parula:

...and common yellowthroat:

The photography, as you'll notice, is what we might call security-camera quality:  just sufficient to identify the guilty.

But the warblers were not even all of it.  The catbirds came back, as did the chimney swifts, and we had a couple of white-throated sparrows, some chipping sparrows, a ruby-crowned kinglet, a Swainson's thrush up by the monument, and even, strangely enough, an osprey circling overhead:

And then today, nothing.

State of the list, 2015

Before I get to the halfway point of 2016, I should give an account of the state of my Somerville list as of 2015.  As I noted before, this was not a good year for me, birdwatching-wise.  Lack of time outdoors translated into a meager tally of new species.  I only had five (American wigeon, common loon, great egret, green heron, and redhead), against two species I deaccessioned (hooded warbler and Philadelphia vireo, in both cases because I lost confidence that I had really seen them).  All the ones I added were waterbirds, as it happens.

For 2016 I have a couple new species, and I'm hoping that over the next few weeks, I'll pick up a few migrants I haven't yet seen.