Western Kingbirds on Fir Island

There's been an awkward gap in my posts... I was gone on a 2.5-week driving trip down to southern California and back.  I got some good bird photos and although I primarily created this web site to showcase yard birds, I'll be posting some of the trip photos on this blog... including a Virginia rail, California condor, bobcat and others. 

Before I start posting trip photos... I took a little trip to Fir Island today hoping to photograph some shorebirds and what I understand is Skagit County's first Black phoebe record.  Alas... I saw neither the phoebe nor any shorebirds despite excellent habitat for both. 

However on the way home I passed a bird perched high on a wire and as I was getting farther and farther away I began wondering what I had seen.  I was mulling whether or not to turn back when I encountered another one.  Upon examination both birds turned out to be Western kingbirds... only the second and third of that species I've seen in the ten years I've lived in Skagit County! 

The birds were separated by a corner in the road and a couple of hundred yards, but as I began following the second bird back down the power lines on which it was perched it joined the first bird.  The first bird, in avoiding me deftly flew down in the ditch and retrieved a large insect which it proceeded to eat while perched.  There was a noticeable difference in coloration between the two birds with one having a much brighter, yellower breast than the other.  The photography conditions were less than ideal but I did manage a good many photos of the two birds. 

Stay tuned for trip photos!