Well, maybe not everywhere but when I took my daily walk through the swamp (yes–I really mean a swamp) today, I ran across three fledgling Prothonotary Warblers with two parents trying desperately to keep the fledglings fed. Unfortunately, it was dreary (it rained a few minutes later) and I was in the swamp where there’s no light anyway and my camera doesn’t handle low light situations very well so the photographs I took are–well–not too great. But I’m including them anyway because the fledglings were just so darn cute.

Prothonotary Warblers are absolutely gorgeous birds found in southern swamps inn the United States and we have them all over the place here. This year, they nested in an old nest box that we’d only set up for decoration–flying squirrels had chewed the entrance hole and it’s just a banged up old box. But because it was shallow and we’d put it the shade of some lovely old oak trees, the Prothonotary Warblers decided they liked it and built a nest there.

Four baby warblers fledged about five days ago and they are as cute as the dickens. When they first fledged, they were mostly olive green but now they’re starting to develop the golden yellow of the adult birds. Adults are a brilliant golden yellow with blue-gray wings and bright black eyes. I think they are some of the most beautiful birds we have.