The winter was unusually cold here in Delaware this past year. I believe I saw more snow than I had in the previous few winters I have spent here. This had interrupted our family hikes in the forest that surrounds this state. Now that summer is here again, we were able to spend some quality time in the sun, soaking up all the vitamin D.

This year, to add to our time in nature, I got us binoculars to try and mark birds off our list. Well, it is a lot harder than it seems. While the Merlin app was able to identify the following: Common Yellowthroat, American Robin, Northern Cardinal, and the Red-eyed Vireo, we were only able to observe the American Crow successfully. And that was at the end, when we saw the crow roaming around empty picnic tables for food scraps.

So was it a success? I believe it was. The binoculars made the trip enjoyable, whereas we pushed further into the forest, we kept our attention on flutters in the sky.

While I wish I could paint, I added an AI image of an American Crow using generative fill from Photoshop. I also know that ChatGPT (which I call Chatty) has gotten very good at generating images, and I enjoy making art with Canva.

Overall, visiting White Clay Creek State Park was a great day. We visited where the Delaware arch begins, and enjoyed trying to spot the birds. Maybe next time, we will be luckier in checking a few more off our list.