The weather for today's public trek at the Thomas Miner preserve in Stonington couldn't have been better, and the crowd of at least a couple of dozen couldn't have been friendlier and more fun to lead. There was certainly plenty to see, and the plants and animals weren't shy about presenting themselves for inspection. One discovery, however, was something I could have done without—something I'm always nervous about finding, especially when there are kids in the group, as there were this morning. One of the youngsters and his mom noticed, in the grass of the main trail, a little smidgen of yellow that, on closer inspection, turned out to be a fledgling Yellow Warbler, a common enough songbird at Miner. It was great that the group, the kids especially, were able to get a fine close-up look at the the little guy, but when I inspected the adolescent, I was saddened to see that it was blind in one eye, probably because of an encounter with a predator. Though it still had a lot of spunk, I doubt it had much of a future. I gently lifted it up and got it to perch on a Multiflora Rose stem out of harm's way. We all wished it good luck. It would need more than its share to survive.