End of summer visitors detracted from the amount of time I had for birding activities this past week.  And I don’t appear to be attracting any interesting fall visitors to the yard.  But it’s hard to keep a dedicated bird photographer down!

The American goldfinches are still around, but I note that the vast majority are juveniles that came into being this year.  Some of them, such as this juvenile morphing into male plumage, are pretty rough looking.

And not content to share the same perch, this juvenile is giving a not-so-subtle hint to its temporary perch-mate.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a Rufous hummingbird in the yard, but we still have a couple of Anna’s hummingbirds.  While I’m not sure as to the sex of the first bird, I’m fairly certain that the second (with the red salvia) is a male.

And of final interest in the yard, while we were without Northern Flickers all summer, we’re now having visits from both juvenile males and females.  We lost our big dead pine tree (it fell over!) which was our primary staging structure for the flickers, but they are adapting very well to the new habitat.  This is one of the juvenile males.

It’s a new day for this blog and long overdue!  This month (August, 2015) I finally stumbled onto a process that allows users to sign up for any new posts to my blog.  It’s been a long, frustrating experience but now the process has been unscientifically tested and it appears to be working.  So if you want to receive notification by email that I’ve posted a new blog simply place your email address in the box at the bottom of the screen.  I thought that the box only appeared on the Welcome screen but it appears it might also be at the end of each of the blog post screens.

And the two birds pictured above?  The first is a Pelagic cormorant which earlier this season had a distinctive white patch on each side of its rump just behind its wings.  It’s now in its non-breeding plumage and we won’t see the white patch until next year.

The second bird is a Double-crested cormorant, distinctive due to the yellow on its head.

Happy birding!

Monday, August 17 offered another day for birding.  I spent a couple of hours at the previously mentioned wetland photographing… what else but American goldfinches.  I’ve really gotten rather tired of photographing them, but as I’ve said previously, there’s always something to learn.  Neither the goldfinches nor the thistles will be with us that much longer, so I continue to take photographs.  Besides… the goldfinches offer a good way to fill in the time between sightings of other rarer birds.

While monitoring the wetland I also saw a female Black-headed grosbeak, an Olive-sided flycatcher, a Pacific Slope flycatcher and at least four female/juvenile Western tanagers, one or more of which is pictured below.

I rounded out the day by performing a little skeet shooting on a headland of Fidalgo Bay… and considering my luck, am determined to return for a little more.

I think I’m on the verge of having my site notify subscribers of new posts via email.  You can try out the new feature by entering your mail code in the box at the bottom of this, or my site’s “Welcome” page.

With an overcast morning I was looking forward to a better photography experience.  Before I even got out of the house I spied a Cedar waxwing in the watercourse, a relative rarity.  I sneaked out of the house, usually an unsuccessful tactic, but in that case managed several photos of the waxwing before it left the yard.

I returned to the wetland I mentioned in my prior post but it was curiously devoid of birds.  I waited around for over an hour before a few American goldfinches returned to feed on thistle seeds.  I took some additional photos of them feeding.

I returned home and gave up birding for awhile, but then my wife spotted what she thought was an Orange-crowned warbler.  Upon closer examination I thought it might have been a vireo.  I made for the yard with my camera but the bird flew before I could photograph it or get a better view for a positive identification.  However I remained in the yard to see if it might return.

A short time later a female Wilson’s warbler entered the yard and eventually flew to the watercourse.  I obtained several good photos before it left.

And after all of the activity was over, my wife told me that a hawk (undoubtedly an accipiter) had entered the yard right after I initially left that morning.

And finally, a male Spotted towhee, whose kin have been quite shy this summer, emerged on a log where I could photograph it.  This one looks like it might have been fresh off a bath.

On the morning of August 13, 2015, on my way back to the house from my morning walk in WA Park/coffee with friends/breakfast, I drove by the local wetland (probably not the best way to describe it this year!) and saw a few American goldfinches in the thistle and other birds in the blackberry bushes. I returned to the house, retrieved my camera and a homemade prop that allows me to shoot out the passenger side of my car, and returned to the wetland.

I positioned my vehicle between the thistle and the blackberry bushes and almost immediately began taking photos on both sides of the car. Initially I concentrated on the blackberry bushes but as time went on I repositioned my car to concentrate on the thistle. Over a two-hour period I took 157 photos. Here are the birds I saw and, with a couple of exceptions, photographed:

American goldfinches (male, female and juveniles in many plumage phases)
American robins
European starlings (adult and juvenile)
House finch (female or juvenile only)
Western tanager (female and juvenile)
Cedar waxwing
Orange-crowned warbler
Wilson’s warbler (male and female)
Warbling vireo
yet (and possibly never) to be identified flycatcher 

Here are some photographs, American goldfinches first…

Next up, a juvenile American robin with a mouthful of blackberry…

The Warbling vireo…

The female Western tanager...

And finally, the unidentified flycatcher…

I was surprised not to see any Black-headed grosbeaks since they were at our house as recently as last week and every one I photograph has blackberry juice on its bill.

The photography conditions weren’t all that good. I had full sun with the sun coming across at an angle instead of from behind me, and both conditions tend to generate shadows on the bird from leaves and branches as well as from the birds’ beaks. There’s also a lot of contrast with lighting in various parts of the photos. But when you take 157 photos you can usually find some value somewhere within the group. Here are some of my best shots, but still giving some exposure to birds that are rarer.