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.