On April 28, 2015, I spent time in the yard birding. During the prior several weeks I had been spending more time in the yard due to generally better weather and with more spring visitors. I began my monitoring on this day when I noticed a bird fluttering under the eaves of the house, a technique that some warblers and flycatchers use to glean bugs that spend the night (and subsequent day) on the sides of the house. I finally got some rather poor photos of the bird, and in processing them I identified the bird as a female Yellow-rumped warbler of the Audubon race. As those of you who monitor my blog know, I have already seen (and photographed) male Yellow-rumped warblers of the Audubon race in the yard this spring, but this was the first female I have observed.

I next had a pair of Brown-headed cowbirds visit the yard… bad news for the other birds but good news for the photography. While the male characteristically hid in the foliage, the female flew to the watercourse and I obtained several photos of her. Last season we had a pair of Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) raise a cowbird, and a pair of Spotted towhees did likewise. I wasn’t happy that both of these species lost a breeding season and that it basically occurred in our yard.

I needed to run a couple of errands in the afternoon and I returned to the house about 4pm. My first task was to check the watercourse from the view in the kitchen. Sitting on one of the staging sticks beside the watercourse was a(nother?) female Yellow-rumped warbler of the Audubon race. As I watched it flew out of my view but was almost immediately replaced by the first Wilson’s warbler of the season, a male. At this point I raced for my camera, stopping at the door only long enough to grab my observation chair and position it in the yard. By the time I was set up the Wilson’s warbler had decided to take a tour of the yard, and even though it stayed around the yard for several minutes, it never landed where I could take a photo. But as I got set up an Orange-crowned warbler made it’s way to the watercourse, the third visit for the species this day. Since I had photographed two prior visits by an Orange-crowned warbler earlier in the day I wasn’t that interested in more photos, but a warbler is a warbler and photos of them down’t grow on trees!

So by this point I had tallied six warbler visits and three warbler species for the day, all in my yard!

But there were a couple more notable sightings of the day, neither of which provided the opportunity for photographs. A group of Red crossbills consisting of at least two pairs of birds visited one of the static bird baths. After multiple daily visits last summer and fall their visits have grown very sporadic and I can’t count on seeing them even over a several day period.

And last, but not least, I saw movement in a small evergreen conifer bush located about six feet from me. I couldn’t make out a bird but knew that one had to be in the bush and I readied my camera just in case it popped out. It did pop out, but too close to me for a photo. It was a Bewick’s wren, a species we seldom see in the yard.

Postscript: On May 18th and 19th had other three-warbler species days.