On Saturday, Sep 10, I had another opportunity to spend time in the yard and the time was productive.  I had a good many warbler visits, but unlike the previous Monday all the warblers this day were Orange-crowned warblers… unless the very young warbler pictured at the end of this warbler series is another species.  It appears that this warbler wasn’t long  out of the nest!

A Black-capped chickadee landed very close to me and gave me the opportunity for some good close-ups…

We still have some juvenile American robins showing up in the yard late in the breeding season,,,

Our Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) had been gone for several weeks but this was the species first return to the yard after their absence.  On any given day in the winter this can be our most numerous yard bird.

We have a good population of House finches and this male gave me a lot of opportunities for photographs.

After an absence of 2-3 weeks we had a covey of California quail visit the yard briefly.  The good news for us is that there were about a dozen, and the quail are now near-adult size which makes them less vulnerable to predators.  I usually think that if the quail raise just 2-3 it’s a successful breeding year, so I have to consider this year’s crop outstanding.  My hat is off to the parents!

I had two species that I managed to photograph of which I am especially proud, because they can be difficult to photograph.  This first photo is of a Red-breasted nuthatch, a fairly common bird in the yard (although not so much this summer) but they rarely stop moving and so are difficult to photograph.

And this last bird is perhaps the most difficult bird I have found to photograph… a Brown creeper.  The creeper is usually difficult to find and is not always a consistent visitor to the yard.  And even more than the nuthatch, it seems that the creeper very seldom remains still… except perhaps for a drink of water!  Notice the long curved bill useful from extracting insects from cracks between the bark.  Notice also the plumage on the bird’s back which makes it very difficult to see on many trees.