Cattus Island 4/2--Pine Warbler

As I often do after I drop Shari off at the bus station on Tuesdays, I drove over to Riverfront Landing to look at the ducks. Sadly, the Canvasbacks have departed. Buffleheads,  both scaup, and many Ruddy Ducks were floating around the marina.

Cattus Island from its eastern tip

Then I went to Cattus Island Park to take my morning walk/trudge. In the marsh as I entered I immediately saw 5 Snowy Egrets and a Great Egret plus, moving around behind them, a Tricolored Heron. I knew it wasn't a Great Blue--too small. Then it rose up from the reeds and joined the egrets--good looking bird, but not the first one of the year. There was one that wintered on Long Beach Island that I saw in January.

The park was pretty active with birds today, I didn't have to take too many steps before I'd see something flitting, flying, fluttering in the trees or leaf litter.

And finally, yes, a Pine Warbler in a pine tree, a beautiful fresh yellow bird that I didn't even try to get a picture of with my p&s camera. I saw another later on in the woods, high up in a bare tree. While walking a path in the phragmites I heard the "doo-doo-doo" of Greater Yellowlegs and when I got to a clearing found 6 of them moving through some still water near an Osprey platform. I think this is the only the 2nd time I've seen yellowlegs (or for that matter any sandpiper) at Cattus Island. I would think that the park would be good habitat for shorebirds but looking at an eBird report from last year, very few species were reported there and certainly nothing this early in the season.

The Cattus Island list:
30 species
Canada Goose  2  nesting
Mallard  2
Bufflehead  15
Horned Grebe  2
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Egret  4
Snowy Egret  5
Tricolored Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  2
Greater Yellowlegs  6
Herring Gull  15
Great Black-backed Gull  3
Mourning Dove  5
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1  Actually saw its red belly!
Northern Flicker  1    Heard
American Crow  1    Heard
Fish Crow  12
Tree Swallow  2
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  5
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
American Robin  3
Pine Warbler  2
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Brown-headed Cowbird  5
American Goldfinch  4