After my success with warblers the previous day I had high hopes of seeing more today (8/1/2013). The entire day was cloudy, meaning I would be using reduced shutter speeds but wouldn’t have to be concerned so much with shadows from sticks, beaks, etc.   Alas, it was not to be a consecutive warbler day!  I saw not a single warbler.

However, as is usually the case if you just spend enough time at it, the day was far from a loss.  I had been in my birding chair only a short while when my attention was drawn to the activity in a dead pine tree over my head.  The yard was filled with chickadees and nuthatches but a newcomer with a slight yellow tinge drew my attention.  I realized that it had a ‘bump’ on the top of its head, more often referred to as a crest… but not what I term a true crest.  At any rate I realized that it was a small flycatcher.  I thought it was too close to take photos of it but it must have been just in range.  I quickly snapped about half a dozen photos before if flew into some young fir trees, never to return.  Many of these small flycatchers can only be reliably identified by vocalizations so I don’t have much hope of identifying a specific species, but I was happy to get the sighting and some photos.

Flycatcher… species unknown.

A short time later I heard the crows raising an alarm and their attention seemed to be directed at the ground.  Mindful that our neighbors had seen a coyote in the same area just the week before, I carefully crossed the yard to where I could view a hillside across the street.  It didn’t take long for a coyote to emerge and I was able to take over a dozen photos… my first of a coyote in the neighborhood.  We’ve had many sightings this spring and have been very careful about letting the cats outside.  In fact, I recently built a protective cage for our cat that likes to spend time outdoors.

COYOTE!

Along the way I managed photos of what I think is a juvenile Anna’s hummingbird.  Its gorget hasn’t fully developed but you can see the basic coloration that would indicate that it’s not a female.

Juvenile Male Anna’s Hummingbird

And finally, I had a visit from an American goldfinch family with four young.  The young, instead of having the brilliant yellow of the male or the subdued greenish-yellow of the female, have a sort of dull gold color on the wings that you quickly come to recognize when you spend time looking at the birds.

Juvenile American Goldfinch