Just a reminder… all the photos on my blog from this point until further notice were taken with my new Nikon D500 camera.

This spring we had a pair of White-crowned sparrows which late in the season produced four young.  Unfortunately one met its demise against one of our windows.  In most past years we haven’t been able to retain these birds through the breeding season.

This year we also had two pairs of Black-headed grosbeaks, at least one pair of which successfully bred some number of young.  While the grosbeaks were frequent visitors they are fairly secretive about entering the yard and we never could get an accurate count of the number of young.  We had an accipiter visit the yard several times since last week (about 8/5) and the grosbeaks have apparently left the area, possibly for the season.

The grosbeaks are the only reason I maintain a small platform feeder during the spring and summer months.  The grosbeak pictured below is one of the breeding males.

This is either one of the breeding female Black-headed grosbeaks or possibly one of the juveniles.  I have  noted that, at least for me, the young grosbeaks were difficult to diffferentiate from the adult females.

We had at least one pair of breeding Spotted towhees in the yard this spring and summer.  I’m always interested in the maturation of the young of this species.  They initially look nothing like the adults and even as they mature they look different from each other as they mature.  I think they give beginning birders one of their greatest challenges!  The bird pictured below is apparently a mature male.