Mother's Day: for the birds

Yesterday was a very nice day for me. The boys gave me some really nice skin care items (Kiss My Face soap, bath gel and Nature's Gate tea tree lotion) in a cute basket and Dan gave me a bouquet of roses (and I'm not even his mother). But the real Mother's Day treat for me came the day before when Mose went birdwatching with me. This was a real sacrifice because it meant leaving the house by 5:20 on a morning when he would have much rather slept in.
The walk was sponsored by Beaver Creek Reserve. We met a small group of birders at Putnam Park on the U-W Eau Claire campus. Not exactly a birding hot bed, but Mose and I figure we saw and heard 20 species in the course of the next 2 hours. We weren't focused on list making or on seeing a particular species. It was a good introduction/reintroduction to the modest joys of spring birdwatching close to home. And if we had to pick a favorite, we would go with the great crested flycatcher, AKA the 'weep bird'.