What is it???

I had a great day in the yard today.  After a relatively slow start I started having visits from warblers… at least two Wilson’s warblers and later a Yellow warbler.  The Wilson’s warblers made repeated visits to the yard for at least an hour, at times coming to within six feet of me… far too close for my lens, which needs close to 15 feet to focus.

Wilson’s warbler… probably a juvenile male.

Male Wilson’s Warbler.

Male WIlson’s Warbler.

Later in the afternoon I received a briefer visit from a female Yellow warbler.  Since I didn’t log a Yellow warbler in the spring I was especially grateful to be able to see and photograph this one.

Female Yellow Warbler

Female Yellow Warbler

Between visits from the warblers I amused myself taking photos of some of the more common birds of the yard.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

And finally, yesterday I obtained a better photo of the oft-mentioned Eurasian Collared dove visiting the yard.

Eurasian Collared Dove

As to the first photo in this post, it’s of a male Wilson’s warbler bathing in the watercourse.

Exactly a week ago, with guests from Texas in the yard birding with me, I finally had the opportunity to photograph a female Red-winged blackbird.  The birds nest in the wetland below us but during the breeding season make quick forays to the yard to eat seed.  The practice allows them to obtain food without being away from the nest for longer periods of time for hunting purposes.

Female Red-Winged Blackbird

The birds finally managed to salvage my birding photography day on Sunday, July 28.  I made my first foray into the yard in the early afternoon and sat for about 1.5 hours with nothing to show for my time except a male House finch and too many House sparrows.

Male House Finch

Male House Sparrows

I returned to the yard a couple of hour later and it didn’t appear that things were going to be any better, but after about 15 minutes I had a flurry of activity beginning with one of the Eurasian Collared doves (mentioned in previous posts), flying down from a tree almost directly at me.  It flared just above the watercourse and veered into the lower branch of a madrone tree where it played hide-and-seek for about five minutes.

Eurasian Collared Dove

It finally flew down to the ground but in an area where I couldn’t observe it.  However my patience finally paid off and it flew to the watercourse where I was able to obtain some photos before it flew from the yard.  In processing the photos I was disappointed in the lack of detail.  I think the camera has difficulty with subjects that don’t offer a lot of contrast (such as Brown creepers), and it’s easy to blow out the color on light-colored birds such as this dove and male American goldfinches.

I’ve noticed on several occasions that when the doves intend to fly out of the local area they rise almost vertically until they get well above the treetops at which point they transition into horizontal flight.  If I can get my wits about me it means that I might be able to get photos of one in flight.

Next up was a male Wilson’s warbler, the second sighting in about a week but with an absence of probably about two months previous to that.  I first noticed it when it flew onto one of the hummingbird feeders and spent considerable time traveling around the top of it.  I usually don’t take photos of birds on feeders but I felt that this was an exception due to the unusual behavior.

Frustrated Male Wilson’s Warbler on Hummingbird Feeder

The warbler flew out of the yard after making an abortive pass or two over the watercourse.  It finally landed on another bird bath but the bath is only about 10-12′ from where I sit and too close for my lens to focus.  The bird finally flew out of the yard but returned very briefly about ten minutes later.

Next up was a Spotted towhee that briefly entered the watercourse and allowed me to obtain photos… perhaps I should say one good photo.

Spotted Towhee

Shortly after that observation a juvenile Spotted towhee, which has been hanging around the yard lately,  accessed a different bird bath which allowed me to obtain photos.

Juvenile Spotted Towhee

Despite having one or more broods of towhees raised in the immediate area each year, I’ve never observed a parent feeding one of the youngsters or even one of the youngsters accompanying an adult or begging for food.

All of the foregoing observations occurred in the time frame of about twenty minutes, and another hour of monitoring the yard didn’t yield much else.

However, perhaps my most interesting photo of the day was that of a butterfly which briefly landed on our Pacific yew tree.  Can anyone out there ID this butterfly for me?

Unidentified Butterfly

On July 20, 2013 we had visitors arrive from Texas.  Around the middle of the afternoon one of them, a beginning birder, looked out the kitchen window and saw a Cedar waxwing in or around the watercourse.  As soon as I heard my wife confirm the sighting I grabbed my camera and headed outside, but by the time I was set up the waxwing had disappeared.  (I had thought I might have heard a waxwing earlier in the day but didn’t see it in glancing around the yard.)

We decided to set up in the yard and watch birds for awhile and in just a few minutes a male Black-headed grosbeak arrived in one of the madrona trees.  After just a little moving around the yard it was down by the watercourse, an unusual event as I believe I mentioned in one of my prior posts.)  I was able to take a good many photos of the bird staging, bathing and preening afterwards.

Male Black-headed Grosbeak

Male Black-headed Grosbeak – post-bath

Almost before the grosbeak was finished bathing the Cedar waxwing was back and I was able to get a couple of photographs.  I suspect this might be a juvenile… crest not raised, colors not very bright and some feather aberration on the bird’s belly.  For whatever reason, at one point the waxwing decided to open its beak and I managed a photo with its mouth open.

Cedar Waxwing

While we were watching, in about the same 10-minute period, a Spotted towhee made an appearance at the watercourse… and a while later, yet another.

Spotted Towhee

While the towhees are regular daily, year-round visitors, the grosbeaks have been rare visitors for the past couple of months and it’s unusual for either species to visit the watercourse.  The waxwings are very rare visitors but when ithey do visit, it is usually to avail themselves of the water.

It was nice to be able not only to photograph these birds, but to show them to our visitors!

First, a couple of birds that have been in the yard lately.  The first is a Eurasian Collared dove which I believe I mentioned in my last post.  Not the greatest photo but it will do for a record shot.

Next up… a juvenile American robin.  The bird is full-sized but the spots on its breast give it away.  However this bird is not new to the world.  It flew directly to one of the few huckleberry bushes in the yard and immediately began plucking berries!

However, I have a tale to tell about crows.  This photo is a juvenile that, with its family, has been hanging around the yard since it fledged a few weeks ago.  The feature that marks this bird as a juvenile is the light-colored marking at the base of the bill, a trait exhibited on many other species of juvenile birds.

And now for the tale…

For the past two years I had occasionally driven through the local marina on the way home and selectively fed some of the crows in the parking lot.  It seemed that there were a few crows that recognized my car but all the other crows in the vicinity keyed off the actions of those few who recognized either me or my greenish-blue Honda Honda CR-V.  I never took any action to attract the crows… I always kept my hands in the car but my driver’s window was usually rolled down so that I could throw out the occasional peanut. 

On occasion I would drive in other areas of town several blocks away from the marina and the crows would clearly recognize me.  They exhibited this recognition by following my car along the street, either flying alongside or landing beside the car and watching me.  My theory was that they recognized the car and that was their key to the peanuts.  There were a couple of other Hondas in town that were exactly like mine and I often wondered what happened when/if they drove through the marina, as the crowd of crows in the winter could sometimes reach as many as 60-80. 

 When breeding season arrived in the spring of 2013 all of the crows disappeared from the marina parking lot.  The crows pair up at that time of year and spend time building nests and defending their nesting area from other crows and predators such as ravens, eagles, raccoons, etc.   So for about two months I encountered no crows in the marina parking lot. 

 In late June I drove through the parking lot a couple of times and there were a few crows (maybe 5-6 at the most) back in the parking lot.  On the first day they were back I was driving through the parking lot looking at the marina out the passenger window of my Honda when I became aware of a distraction out my driver’s window.  I turned and there were a couple of crows flying along beside the car, periodically landing and looking up at me.  This established that they retained in memory, for approximately two months without reinforcement, the fact that they could garner peanuts from the vehicle!  I thought that this was an accomplished feat which just added to my respect for these birds.  But there was more to come. 

 In late June a 2013 silver Toyota RAV-4 I had ordered about a month previously arrived at the dealership and I took possession of the vehicle.  The new vehicle replaced the 2011 Honda CR-V that was blue-green in color. 

 Although I made a few trips through the marina in my new Toyota RAV-4 after it was delivered, I saw no crows.  This was probably due in part to extensive lawn maintenance that was taking place in the area one day and the fact that the parking lot was uncharacteristically full of vehicles, the owners of which were out on boats at the beginning of the summer boating season.  Finally after some of the parking lot activity had died I made my first trip through the parking lot in my new vehicle when crows were present.  The first I saw of them was as they were flying directly towards me from almost 100-yards away!  I had no expectation that they would be attracted to the new car, as it was silver and my former car had been blue-green.  However the crows had clearly spotted me before I spotted them.  They flew directly to the new car and began their behavior that indicated they knew there were peanuts to be obtained.  Again, I made no overt actions which could have clued them.  As far as I am concerned, the only explanation is that they recognized my face from a distance of almost 100-yards! 

Bird sightings in the yard are, for whatever reason, somewhat less interesting this summer than last.  The Red crossbills which were with us all last summer and most of the winter have mysteriously disappeared and the Black-headed grosbeaks, normally frequent visitors to the yard and feeders are conspicuously absent this year… with a single exception which you’ll read about soon.  This year we have only a single male California quail that visits the yard… gone are the multiple covies of both sexes we’ve seen in prior years.  So that’s most of the bad news.

The good news is that for about the past week or so we’ve had both a single, apparently juvenile Mourning dove in the immediate vicinity and we’re now being visited by two Eurasian Collared doves.

Juvenile Mourning Dove

Earlier this month we were visited by a single male Black-headed grosbeak and instead of checking out the feeders it went for the watercourse.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in or around the watercourse or one of the bird baths, but this bird’s visit gave me many opportunities for photographs with the bird out in the open… an opportunity I almost never get.

Male Black-headed Grosbeak

Male Black-headed Grosbeak

On the same day as the grosbeak’s visit we were visited by a family of five Bushtits, very rare visitors to the yard.  They also visited the watercourse and I also managed many photographs, although they were eventually discouraged by House sparrows.

Bushtit

And also earlier this month I had a visitor that, when processing photos, I realized I couldn’t identify.  After consultations with better birders than I, I have about accepted that this is a Song sparrow… although unlike any I have ever seen.  The beak appears unusually elongated and it’s possible that the bird is a juvenile.

Juvenile Song Sparrow?

And finally, I should mention that the crocosmia is now in full bloom which offers many opportunities for hummingbird photographs.  I use the word ‘opportunities’ because even though I can shoot a lot of photographs, it can still be difficult to obtain really quality photographs of the hummers in flight!  (This is truly a case of having to open a lot of oysters to find a pearl!)