Saturday, April 19, 2014 began as a most unlikely day for birding and photography.  The winds were relatively gusty (which usually makes the birds lay low and difficult to spot) and there was a heavy overcast with the threat of rain.

However, not to be discouraged, on the way back from breakfast I observed a couple of eagles soaring over the Cap Sante Overlook, gathered my camera and drove up the hill.  The eagles were too high so I wasted a little time photographing gulls that were taking advantage of the updrafts.  As I sat in my car looking out he window a male Anna’s hummingbird landed on a nearby blackberry blossom stalk left over from last year.  It was almost too close to photograph, but I managed several good photographs on several different trips to the overlook.

A little later I was down on lower Cap Sante talking with a neighbor when a bird flew onto the fence structure of his garden.  I recognized it almost immediately as a Townsend’s solitaire… not the first I’ve seen on Cap Sante but all the same a relative rarity, especially for the urban habitat.  I photographed the bird, then followed it down the street, photographing it as it flew from rock to rock.

At this point I’m going to digress slightly and show you a photo of an Orange-crowned warbler in our watercourse that I took yesterday.  This was only our second observed warbler visit of the year, both by Orange-crowned warblers.

And to round out this little show, my best photo of the day.  The same male Anna’s hummingbird as the one appearing in the photo earlier in this blog.