Chirps and Cheeps

I saw and identified a Red-eyed Vireo a couple of days ago - a lifer for me. At the time, I was stealthily creeping through our woods in Orchard Park, NY, looking for the Common Yellowthroat. Camera in hand, I was hoping to capture a photo of the Yellowthroat because I never got a shot of it when I first saw the little cutie.

As I was slowly creeping through the woods, I saw this little guy flit by. He was quite jumpy and flitted curiously about from tree limb to tree limb. I only got a couple of very poor shots and later, when I enlarged them on my laptop, I thought it might be a Red-eyed Vireo. Yesterday, I managed a couple of better shots - and while photographing, I realized, to my delight, there were TWO of them!  They both flitted and hovered near the same spot - and I wondered if there might be a nest nearby.  Sure enough, the nest was right there in front of me - beautifully camouflaged!  I'm sure I made them nervous!

Oh, and did you know that the Red-eyed Vireo was once considered amongst the top 3 most abundant birds in Eastern North American forests? And it has been recorded that males have sung more than 10,000 songs in ONE day during spring!  Wow!

Today on my lunch break, I returned hauling my tripod and camera near their nesting spot. Covered with mosquito repellant (it's been a super wet spring and the black flies and mosquitos have all but devoured me!) - I set everything up inconspicuously and crept back behind a tree to wait.  Within only a few moments, they both showed up and I clicked away to my heart's delight!

I didn't check today, but there were no eggs as of last night. I'm sure they won't be far behind.  So, satisfied with some nice photos, I shall leave them now to nest in peace. Enjoy the pics...