It’s unusual to have a Song sparrow in the watercourse.  We had only a single Song sparrow all this past winter.  But this one was apparently inspired by a male Red Crossbill that was visiting the watercourse.

The male Anna’s hummingbird(s) that overwintered with us have used the watercourse for bathing from time to time.  I measured the temperature this past week at 55-degrees… MUCH too cold for me!

And as I’ve recorded in prior blog posts, the Rufous hummingbirds have arrived and are making use of the watercourse for bathing.  Pictured below is a male which, after about a two-week truce, has now begun trying to defend feeders.  I expect things to quickly get worse.

And finally, one of our regular visitors at the beginning of the winter season is now returning on occasion.  We’ve missed the pair of Golden-crowned kinglets, but I think it was another species scared away by our accipiter.

I find this photo rather interesting.  The bird has a very bright orange crown located in the middle of the yellow area, but it’s not visible even though the bird is showing the top of its head.  (If you look VERY closely you can see a very slight tinge of orange within the yellow.)  In the third photo below you can clearly see how visible the orange crown can be.  What’s interesting is that the bird can so effectively hide/display it.