Late September Yard Birds

Interesting yard birds have been getting more and more difficult to see and photograph lately, but the yard is not totally devoid of interest.  Perhaps the most interesting visitor this week was a Hermit's thrush that visited the watercourse just before 7pm one evening this last week.  It was probably too dark to obtain a photo but that didn't keep me from trying, but before I could get into position the thrush flew... after taking a lengthy bath.

Then a day or so later I was surprised to see (and obtain a single photo) of another rare visitor to the yard, one I at first mistook for one of the many sparrows that was in the yard at the time.  While the bird took a lengthy bath, I was not in position to get photos of it in the watercourse.  This is a Yellow-rumped warbler and I won't even hazard a guess as to the race (Audubon's or Myrtle's) or sex of the visitor.  I've got well over a hundred photos of this species taken within several hundred yards of our location during fall migration in past years, but for whatever reason it's a rare visitor to our yard. 

 

And today I obtained a photo I've been wanting for quite some time.  Our Rufous hummingbirds are long gone, but for the past couple of winters we've had a pair of Anna's hummingbirds that have survived cold temperatures and even a week's worth of snow.  This appears to be a female Anna's hummingbird hovering over our watercourse... but it is not!  

 

When the hummingbird turns to where the light reflects off of its gorget it is revealed as a male Anna's hummingbird... in flight and taken with a shutter speed of 1/1250 of a second. 

A Four or Five Sparrow Day

On Wednesday afternoon I detoured by a development on the NW corner of Fidalgo Island and found the area in fog when I first arrived.  However there were a lot of sparrows in evidence and I photographed a lot of them... either four or five.  All these photos were taken within a hundred yards of the same location.  Here are the photos...

First up, a Song sparrow...

Next up, a mature White-crowned sparrow...

And a 'first winter' White-crowned sparrow... 

The series of photos I took of Golden-crowned sparrows today are probably the best photos I've ever taken of that species, and I managed to get most of the photos with the bird on a thistle head! 

And finally, this is where the identification gets somewhat muddled.  These remaining shots are either of Savannah sparrows, Lincoln sparrows... or both.  The habitat was suitable for either and I'm fairly certain that at least one of the birds is a Savannah sparrow.  (I'll try to get a second opinion.) 

 

More Wren Photos

I returned to the same brush pile on Tuesday afternoon and found that a House wren was still there, although it did have a brief squabble with a second wren.  Here are some more (and better) House wren photos...

And just for fun I spent about an hour photographing another species of flying creature.  This was challenging photography.  These dragonflies almost never landed and very seldom hovered.  I was using my Nikon 200-400mm lens for which the minimum focus length is something around fifteen feet.  I was amazed at the amount of detail I could capture at that distance. 

Wrens

Virtually all summer visitors and migrants stopped visiting the yard about a week ago.  Other than the usual birds that we'll have all winter, a single Bushtit has been the only visitor.

A friend who furnished the primary root that is used for our watercourse  user staging told me that he had two more brush piles and I was welcome to help myself.  He has property on south Fidalgo Island and I visited the area on Thursday afternoon.  I didn't find any wood I could use but I did see an abundance of birds, so I drove back out Friday afternoon to see what I could photograph.

Several birds scattered when I drove up to the sloping meadow, but I positioned myself close to the brush pile in the middle of the property, with the sun to my back, and waited.  I didn't have to wait long.  There were two or more Bewick's wrens in the brush pile and they were very active, alternately chasing each other, searching for food and even sunning.  Wrens can be quite challenging to not only find, but also photograph since they often are quite active.  These (and other) photos were obtained over the course of almost an hour. 

Here are some of the photos...

I was a little puzzled by these first two photos.  There was long interaction between this bird and what was clearly a Bewick's wren (see photos below) but this bird lacks the eye stripe of a Bewick's wren and seems to have a lot of pattern on the wings.  I consulted with a friend who tells me that this is a House wren, so the two different wren species were apparently competing for ownership of the brush pile!   
  

 

At one point one of the birds landed on a quite steep slope of wood and spread its wings and tail for several minutes, apparently enjoying the warmth of the sun.  

Wednesday

I spent at least a couple of hours in the yard this afternoon waiting for migrants to arrive, but it wasn't until I had about 15 minutes of direct sunlight left on the on the watercourse before I had any unusual visitors.

First, a fine specimen of what is probably a male Pine siskin.  I am amazed at the variation of colors and patterns on these birds. 

I'm saving what would be my next visitor in terms of time sequence for last, so I've got what is probably another Yellow warbler for your viewing pleasure... 

My final visitor of the day, which came to the watercourse just before it lost direct sunlight, was a female Red crossbill.  I've taken many photos of the male in the yard but today's photos are probably the best of the female.  In the past both birds have been very sly about sneaking into the yard to access the water, but I used a little manipulation (draining one of the outlying bird baths) to get the female into a better photographic location.  

And my most unusual visitor of the day was this MacGillivray's warbler, which I believe I've only seen in the yard one other time a couple of years ago. 

Fall Migration

Judging from the action in my yard, I think it's safe to say that the fall migration is on!

You're probably tired of hearing this from me by now, but I had another great photography day in the yard on Monday.  After some identification difficulties, I  am fairly certain that I had three different species of warblers in the yard.  But let's get to the photos...

First up is what is undeniably (I hope) an Orange-crowned warbler. 

My next visitor was probably a juvenile Yellow warbler, and one of the two which gave us (the 'us' includes a couple of friends/consultants) the biggest identification problem.  When I took the many photographs of this bird or other similar birds visiting the yard over an extended period of time I thought that it was an Orange-crowned warbler.  Then when I processed the photos I thought it might be the female Western Tanager that has been visiting the yard over the past couple of weeks.  But when I consulted friends who are both better birders than I, they said they think it's a Yellow warbler.

This bird was another puzzler... I'm told it's possibly a Yellow warbler but the lack of any, even subtle, striping on the breast bothers me.  I had another suggestion of a female Wilson's warbler, but I've had those in the yard recently and in all you can discern something of a cap... which this bird seems to lack.  If you look carefully you can see some subtle wing bars.  

 And finally, and unmistakeably, a male Wilson's warbler taking a bath in the watercourse. 

I mentioned in my previous post that I had a flycatcher visit the yard.  One of my consultants said it was probably a Pacific Slope flycatcher, a bird that had visited the yard on at least one other occasion.  Here's the best photo I obtained of the bird...

I also want to add one other bird to this post that I took over the weekend and somehow omitted in the previous post... a Spotted towhee taking a bath.  I just love this photo! 

There are apparently a lot of people who view this blog site who I may not know personally.  If any of you feel that you have superior bird identification skills and are willing to assist me with problems such as those mentioned in this post, I would appreciate hearing from you.  Since most of the photos I post are of birds I encounter in my own yard, I'm familiar with most.  But I don't consider myself an expert birder and would appreciate occasional input before I publish selected photos. 

A Great Birding Week

I've had another really exciting week in the yard.  While no single day equaled my previous post (regarding Sunday, Aug 26), there have been lots of avian visitors to the yard.  I had initially planned to chronicle individual experiences with some of the species but there's been so much activity that I have lost track, so I'll just show some photos.

Sightings of warblers in our yard in the summer is quite rare but by the end of last week I was seeing 8-10 warbler visits per day.  I'm thankful for the photos I've been able to get but somewhat frustrated by those visits I was unable to record.  Warblers are very active and difficult to photograph due to their constant activity.  If they don't spend a little time in the watercourse I generally miss the opportunity to photograph them.

My photography has been helped by the very good weather days we've had recently, and I'm generally spending 4-5 hours in the yard and another couple of hours processing photographs.  For the most part I've been able to keep up with the processing of photo counts approaching 200/day.

And just this past week I've added two new yard birds to my list.  A pair of Stellar's jays flew into the very top of our tallest fir tree for a very brief visit.   When we lived a few blocks down the street we used to see them 3-4 times a year, but I had never seen them for the time we've lived in our current house.

Our second new yard bird was a little rarer.  It was one of the small flycatchers... I've sent a couple of marginal photos to friends for a hopeful ID.   

So enough about the process... let's get to the birds!

Pictured here is an Anna's hummingbird and I would guess it's the product of this year's breeding.  I'm not going to try to guess the sex.  

This is the reason I'm not going to try to guess the sex of the Anna's pictured above.  I at first assumed that I had photographed a female in the photo below, but upon more careful examination of the photo I believe that it is a juvenile male as evidenced by the slight coloration on the head and throat... but I'm always open to comments!  

 This is what I believe to be the single male Red crossbill that visits the watercourse (occasionally with its mate) several times a day.  These birds are relatively shy and are experts at getting to the watercourse undetected.  If you want to see something really interesting, double-click on this image and examine the detail in the feathers and coloration. 

This is the pair of Eurasian Collared doves that have now made about three visits to the yard over the past two to three weeks.  I was excited to get a new species for the yard and it is now nice to have some photos, but I am not excited about getting these things started.  

 A female Wilson's warbler visiting the watercourse...

One of at least two female Western tanagers that has been a regular visitor to the watercourse over the past couple of weeks. 

And finally, a Pine siskin.  I'm not sure why this particular bird looked strange to me, but I've seen and photographed a lot of Pine siskins and there was something about this bird that looked different.  At first I didn't even recognize it as a siskin until it finally revealed a little of the yellow on the edge of the wing.