We’ve still got at least two male Anna’s hummingbirds in the yard and at least one female. One of the males is still trying to control the feeders.  This is the dominant male pictured below, with different lighting angles on the bird’s gorget.

Last week I made a couple of pre-winter excursions around the greater area.  I found this Killdeer, and two others, in one of the Cap Sante Marina parking lots.  There were about a dozen more in the area near the Northern Lights Casino where fireworks are sold twice a year.

And on a very unsuccessful photography expedition, I found this Great Blue heron just across the Swinomish Channel.  It was uncharacteristically tolerant of my vehicle, allowing me to take photographs and not flying due to my presence.

Finally, if you’ve ever been confused about the two main species of chickadees we have in the area, here are photos of each.  This first photo is of a Chestnut-backed chickadee, most easily identified when seen from the side or rear.

This second photo is of a Black-capped chickadee. The Black-capped chickadee very closely resembles the Carolina chickadee which is found in the southeastern US.

There are occasional sightings of the Mountain chickadee in our area.  I saw one in Washington Park many years ago but am still waiting for the first one to be seen in my yard.

On Sunday, 10/16/2016, we had blustery winds left over from the typhoon.  Under normal circumstances this would have discouraged birds from being in the yard but on this day we had lots of birds for an extended period of time.  Here are a few of them.

Despite, or maybe because of, the relative drought we experienced this past summer, the madrone trees are loaded with berries.  Yesterday we had American robins, House finches and Northern flickers partaking of the feast.

Pictured below is a female House finch eating the berries.  I noticed that the robins tend to swallow the berry whole while the smaller finches pick at the berries while still attached to the tree and eat them piecemeal.

I believe that we had at least three Yellow-rumped warblers that entered the yard.  They showed some interest in the watercourse but never came down to it for a drink or bath.  We only seem to get the Audubon race here… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Myrtle’s in our yard.

The bird below is an Orange-crowned warbler.  This one flew to the ground to catch an insect that it saw.

If you look closely at this photo you can see the insect in the bird’s mouth!

And finally, a Song sparrow that will presumably spend the winter with us.

After photographing the loon on Monday morning I returned to the house to find the yard full of birds.  So I transitioned to the yard and began photographing our visitors.

We had both kinds of kinglets, both Golden-crowned…

and Ruby-crowned.

Interestingly enough, I think we hosted our first juvenile Ruby-corwned kinglet, and I have to bestow the title of “Cutest Bird of the Year” on this youngster.  It was taken with the watercourse, returning time and time again to bathe and then preen around in the area.

We’re still hosting our male Hairy woodpecker, which I’ve featured in past blog posts…

But our most important, and rarest visitor of the day was a Hermit’s thrush.  I see one of these only rarely… maybe every 2-3 years or so.  I got a glimpse of what I think was the bird entering the yard, but it stuck to the ground, flew very rapidly and was very furtive.  I knew that we might have an unusual visitor but wasn’t sure what it was going to be.  Finally it appeared on the edge of the watercourse and gave me the opportunity for about 20 photos.

All precisely 3pm the show ended when our first accipiter (probably a Cooper’s hawk) in a couple of months flew through the yard.  I hated to see it because it puts some of our songbirds at risk as well as discourages them from entering the yard.

The weather has been changing and it seems that fall is here.  This is the time of year that I generally switch from photographing birds in the yard to making excursions to photograph waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors.  Monday morning signaled that change when members of the OARS group told me that they had seen loons just outside the marina.  I drove by the marina on the way home and there, in the NW corner of the marina, was this season’s first loon!  I ran a fairly lengthy errand and when I went back by the marina the loon was still there.  I went home, grabbed my camera and got back down in time to take a couple of dozen photos of the loon.  These aren’t the best I’ve ever taken, but they do signal the change in the focus of my photographic activities.

This fall has been an interesting time of year and has resulted in fall migrants and winter birds showing up in the yard.  It’s a welcome change from what had become rather standard fare over the past couple of months.

Some of our most welcome visitors have been what is apparently a family of Brown creepers which visit a rock bird bath in the yard several times each day.  On one occasion I saw three creepers around the bath at one time, and on another occasion or two I observed two.  As I’ve said before, the creeper is a fairly difficult bird to photograph… it seldom pauses its frenetic activity and its camouflage feathering seems to make it difficult for my camera to get a good focus, and the camouflage is so effective that even with a good focus the feathers on the bird’s back look out of focus.  Look carefully at the size of these birds’ feet… they must be the Alley Oops of the bird world!

We still have at least two Anna’s hummingbirds which may end up staying the winter with us.  I always feel bad about the birds staying, but since they remain whether or not we feed them I continue trying to support them.  In this case the bird pictured is a male.

The Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) are back, although no yet in great numbers.  During the winter months they are probably our most numerous species, although in some years that distinction might be challenged by Pine siskins.  And just a couple of days ago my wife observed a Dark-eyed junco of the Slate-colored race in the yard… which will make ten years that at least one has visited us in the winter.

Juncos are one of my favorite birds with regard to their feather pattern and the contrast between the feathers on the birds’ hoods and those on the rest of their body.

This past week we witnessed the return of a Fox sparrow to the yard.  We should have at least one all winter.

During the spring and summer we had rare visits from both Golden-crowned kinglets (pictured below) and Ruby-crowned kinglets.  The Golden-crowned kinglets are now fairly frequent visitors to the yard and often show up in pairs.  I believe this is a female pictured.

We’re still hosting the male Hairy woodpecker from earlier this summer.  This is the first one we’ve had here at the house in several years, and one day several weeks ago it visited with another male.

Our Golden-crowned sparrows are back and we have 4-5 in the yard most days.  Already this fall we are hosting five different species of sparrows:  House, Fox, Song, White-crowned and Golden-crowned.  That will probably be it for the winter unless we get a very unusual stray.  And we still have an ample supply of their cousins:  American goldfinches, House finches and the juncos I already mentioned.

And finally, after I presumed that the warbler migration was about over, we’re getting a good many Yellow-rumped warblers in the yard.  Most seem to be of the Audubon race, but the race, and to a greater extent the sex, can be somewhat difficult to discern at this time of year.  I suspect the one pictured below may be a juvenile male Audubon’s with a hint of yellow on the throat and some very indistinct streaks of yellow on the top of the head.