Chickadees, Olive-sided Flycatcher and Swainson's Thrush

I was only able to spend about an hour in the yard today but it was productive, both from a birding and photography standpoint. From a photography standpoint I managed some good photos of the female Black-headed grosbeak, both male and female Northern Flickers and both of our more common chickadees in the area, the Chestnut-backed and the Black-capped. Here are a couple of photos of the chickadees which readily depict the differences between the two species.

While sitting in the yard the biggest discoveries were two bird species I heard but never saw. The first was an Olive-sided flycatcher calling (according to the books), “Quick, three beers.” I hear it differently… “I need you.” Whichever method you use to identify the bird, its call is quite distinctive. I heard two in Washington Park on my Monday morning walk, and one was in exactly the same area as last year.

My other big discovery was apparently a Swainson’s thrush, a bird whose call I can mimic very accurately. It had apparently flown unobserved into my water coarse but I was sitting on the wrong side of the feature to see it. However it called numerous times. I watched carefully to see if it would appear at the top of the water feature and it apparently flew while I was distracted and when it was disturbed.

I probably won’t update my blog again until sometime in early June. Thanks for stopping by!