Joe Neal's bird list after nature walk celebrating Earth Day at World Peace Wetland Prairie 2012

EARTHY KICK-OFF AT WORLD PEACE WETLAND PRAIRIE April 15, 2012

 EARTH DAY 2012 photos on Flickr.
Earth Day celebrants have, in a manner of speaking, been partying around Fayetteville for at least a week. Yesterday it was earth’s turn at World Peace Wetland Prairie (WPWP) in south Fayetteville, starting at 1 PM. However, the earth got ahead. At noon a huge thunder-boomer rolled in, with plenty of rain the earth really needed. Rained on the parade, so to speak, but didn’t stop it.

I got to WPWP around 2 PM, umbrella-time. Several of us paraded along a wet path through a couple of acres, taking advantage of a sudden rain gap, with those remarkable sun rays called angel slides. Northern Cardinals and an Eastern Towhee obliged with singing. We had unexpected views of an Orange-crowned and a Palm Warbler, a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and quite a few Yellow-rumped Warblers festivally-attired in yellows, blacks, grays, and whites of their upcoming nesting season. White-throated Sparrows -- many now with reddish wings, brilliant white head stripes and throat, gold accents in front of their eyes -- were singing and chasing everywhere. Then rain returned.

Of course rain with umbrellas is no impediment to flower-admiring. With and without umbrellas we enjoyed native red honeysuckle, an indigo bush just ready to bloom, a strange flowering sedge and bunches of yucca-like leaves of rattlesnake master at both WPWP and adjoining Pinnacle Prairie. The Silphium called cup plant won’t bloom until later, but its huge coarsely-toothed leaves were emerged from adjoining greens, full of promise, just right for Earth Day 2012.