We had a great influx of warblers and other migrants for the first three weeks or so of May but things dropped off rather rapidly after that.  We had many sightings of Wilson’s warblers (probably our most numerous), Orange-crowned warblers and a few sightings of male Yellow-rumped warblers and two sightings on the same day of a MacGillivray’s warbler.  It pains me that despite two visits I obtained no photos of the latter!

Things have settled down now so I’m going to post some of the 171 yard photos I kept from May 17, 2017.  (This daily total included 50 photos of Wilson’s warblers.)

This is a male Wilson’s warbler as evidenced by the black cap.

The female Wilson’s warbler‘s cap, pictured below, is much more subtle.  The challenge to birders identification of the sexes is that the birds are usually up in the trees

Here’s a photo of an Orange-crowned warbler.  The orange crown is normally very difficult to see, but I get to view it by virtue of the birds taking baths and getting the tops of their heads wet from which the orange crown often emerges.

A male American goldfinch with a Pine siskin behind it.  We usually have from 15-20 goldfinches in the yard at any one time.

A male Black-headed grosbeak…

We have a pair of crows hanging out in the yard, mainly bringing food in to hydrate it in one of our bird baths so that they can get moisture to their young.  (My theory!)

And the star of the show on this particular day… visits by a Warbling vireo.

It’s that time of year and though the visits from some migrants have slowed to a trickle, I’ve observed the following species feeding young in the yard:

• House sparrows 
• House finches 
• American goldfinches 
• Pine siskins 
• Downy woodpeckers 
• Red-breasted nuthatches 
• Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) 
• Spotted towhees 

Today (5/31/2017), for the second time, I observed an Osprey flying overhead carrying nesting material in the form of a stick.

There is lots of news from the yard as of late. On the afternoon/evening of Tuesday, May 23 the wind began increasing until by 7-8pm we were in the midst of a full-scale gale… one of the most severe I can remember in the sixteen years we’ve lived here. (Friends and relatives in Bellevue and Oregon seemed to have escaped the phenomenon.) Before dark my wife looked out the kitchen window and told me that I wasn’t going to like what had happened in the yard. I looked out and saw that the trunk of the large madrone tree (~20’ tall), the main bird staging object for the entire yard, had snapped about eight feet off the ground! This was an absolute disaster as far as birding is concerned. The birds used the tree as the major center staging area for the yard and I’ve photographed many birds in that tree. Now it was gone!

I carefully inspected the tree the next day (Wednesday, May 24) and determined that if I cut off about the bottom six feet of the top of the tree I might be able to salvage it for a non-living staging structure adjacent to the watercourse, and over the next few hours that’s exactly what I did. (I have photos of all of this but unless you are familiar with the yard you wouldn’t be able to notice the changes.) The loss of the madrone tree has changed the fundamental birding traffic flow in the yard and I’m still trying to adjust.
Early in the day (Wednesday, May 24) we had a visit from a MacGillivray’s warbler, and late in the afternoon when I was involved in my salvage/clean-up project the warbler returned. Very unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of the bird on either visit. However, after the project was mostly finished, I had a visit from a Wilson’s warbler and another, which I managed to photograph, from a male Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race) which actually used the new staging tree and which I managed to photograph.

On a more positive note, while in the yard this afternoon (Thursday, May 25) a pair of Osprey made several over-flights and during one the Osprey was dangling a stick about two feet long.

I counted seven male American goldfinches in the yard on May 24 and that wasn’t all of them. Since there would have presumably been at least an equal number of females that puts our count at 20 or above. Today I saw and photographed a young goldfinch being fed.

While I’m on the subject of juveniles, we had an adorable (independent) Red-breasted nuthatch in the yard and at least two juvenile Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) also operating somewhat independently in the yard. I saw one of the juncos being fed but they weren’t all following their parents around and one took the opportunity to take a very leisurely bath in the bottom of the watercourse.

I’ve been enjoying the migration taking place in and through our yard.  The vast majority of our migrating visitors are Wilson’s warblers…

and Orange-crowned warblers.

We have been inundated by both and I have scores of photos.

Other visitors are Black-headed grosbeaks.  We have at least one pair, and I recently confirmed that we have at least two males.

In a prior post I showed a photo of a Red-breasted nuthatch attempting to hide a seed in a crack of a madrone tree.  The nuthatch has been still trying to hide a peanut piece in the same crack.  Here is the nuthatch with the food still in its beak after repeatedly attempting to position the food carefully in the crack.

This spring we had a flock of about 25 Bushtits that visited the feeders several times a day.  The group access has ended, but one pair seems to be returning for food.  This is a photo of the female.

Over the past several days (5/9-10) a pair of crows began bringing in small snakes.  I lost count at five snakes and I’m sure there have been at least ten.  It’s a real mystery to me as to where the crows are finding the snakes.

But the BIG news, which occurred on May 10, was a White-throated sparrow that made three separate trips to the water feature over the course of the afternoon.  Just this past winter I photographed (and saw) my first White-throated sparrow in Skagit County, and here was one that was good enough to appear in my yard while I had my camera at hand!

These next two photos show you how I spend the majority of my time in the yard.  My objective is to photograph some of the rarer birds that visit, but the reality is that for most of the time I have over a dozen American goldfinches in the yard at any one time and one or two pairs of American robins that enjoy making multiple visits to the watercourse.  So I pass the time while waiting for unusual visitors by taking photos of these frequent visitors.  The goldfinches resemble to some extent some of the warblers that visit, so it’s a constant challenge to monitor the yard and ensure that a warbler isn’t disguised among them.

Rufous hummingbirds are frequent visitors to the yard and occasionally enjoy bathing in the watercourse when they’re not exploring the vegetation or visiting the feeders.

The Wilson’s warbler is our most frequent warbler visitor to the yard.  Yesterday (5/8/2017) I had one or more males visit the yard 5-6 times.  I have yet to see a female this year.

We have a pair of Downy woodpeckers that are frequent visitors to the suet and peanut feeders.  This is the male.

We have a pair of Northern flickers (plus one other!) that are also regular visitors to the suet and peanut feeders.  This is the male.

We still have Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard.  I’m beginning to wonder not when they’ll migrate but IF they’ll migrate!  With plenty of cover, food and companions life is good at our place!

We have Red-winged blackbirds that travel a couple of blocks from the sewage treatment plant wetland for food.  They only visit this time of year and it’s my theory that they visit for quick, easy food and only have to spend a minimal amount of time away from their nest.

And finally (just a reminder that there’s always a finally!), one of our premier visitors of the spring/summer season… a male Black-headed grosbeak.  This is the only time of year that I utilize a platform feeder and it’s just for the benefit of the grosbeaks, although other birds utilize it.  If I want to photograph grosbeaks off the feeder I have to maintain a constant vigilance as they have a habit of surveying the yard from a hidden position and then flying to the feeder in stealth mode.

I was trying to work on the photos I took in Arizona but got stalled on a hummingbird ID.  In the meantime…

On May 7, 2017, I had about 20 minutes between engagements at noon.  I decided to take my camera to the yard just to see what might be around.  I hadn’t even settled in before a male Wilson’s warbler took a tour of the yard.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of it.  But it had no sooner disappeared before a PAIR of Black-headed grosbeaks appeared.  This was our first female grosbeak of the season.

I watched as the grosbeaks flew from the yard and almost immediately a male Western tanager appeared in one of our madrone trees.  It worked its way down the branches and finally flew to the watercourse, so that represented another 22 photos good enough to keep!

All of the foregoing  occurred in about 20 minutes.  After afternoon errands I was able to return to the yard about 3:30pm.  The grand parade was over, but I still managed a good many photos of some of our avian residents.

I had an unusual number of opportunities to photograph a male Spotted towhee that toured the yard several times.

This male American goldfinch didn’t like the male House sparrow‘s intrusion on it’s bath, so it struck up a threatening posture.

A photo of a male Downy woodpecker, probably the same one featured in a prior post.

And this female Rufous hummingbird accessing blooms on a madrone tree.