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.