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.