In my last post (5/4/2017) I mentioned how the spring migration had seemingly begun at my house.  I spent much of the day in the yard on May 7 and it confirmed my observation. I saw three warbler species (Wilson’s, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Audubon’s), a pair of Brown-headed cowbirds, a House wren and a Black-headed grosbeak (original appearance 5/5/2017).   During the course of the day I saw a total of 29 species, took 205 photos (and deleted 98 of them).  That left a lot of processing to do which has now been completed.  Here are a few photos from the day…

This pair of Brown-headed cowbirds showed up mid-morning, right after I began observing…

This is a male Rufous hummingbird that has given up trying to monopolize the feeders.  We also have a male Anna’s hummingbird in the yard.

We still have four Golden-crowned sparrows which have yet to migrate.  I think I may have mentioned that we had two in a prior post but yesterday there were four!

We have a pair of Downy woodpeckers that were coming and going to both peanut and suet feeders multiple times during the day.  And I saw one of the woodpeckers steal a peanut piece that a nuthatch had secreted in a madrone tree crack (see my last post).  Our male Hairy woodpecker that frequented our peanut feeder for the past several months seems to have deserted us, probably to find a mate.

Finally, here are three of the species of warblers that visited… Orange-crowned, Wilson’s and Yellow-rumped Audubon’s.

I spent two sessions in the yard today (5/4/2017) to good advantage.  I’m beginning to see more spring/summer birds and migrants.  I missed photos of two Orange-crowned warbler visits and one by a male Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon male).  But my big sighting for the day were two male Western tanagers.  I first spotted a male high on a dead limb near the top of a fir tree and managed some poor, but identifiable photos.  A short while later another male l(this one in non-breeding plumage) flew down to the watercourse and had a bath.  That I managed to photograph…

I still have several different species of ‘sparrows’ in the yard – if you want to count House sparrows, which are actually finches.  Here’s one of our White-crowned sparrows…

And to my surprise, we still have a pair of Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard.  They have usually headed north by this time.  I would love to have them stay and breed here, which is unlikely, and we don’t have a good record with breeding sparrows and Brown-headed cowbirds.

We also have at least one Spotted towhee and one Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race) which I saw but didn’t photograph today.

We have several Black-capped chickadees in the yard, although they aren’t as numerous as the Chestnut-backed chickadees which seem to prefer the conifers in the neighborhood.  This is one I photographed while it was enjoying a bath in the watercourse.

The Red-breasted nuthatch is a bird I usually find difficult to photograph, so I was happy to catch a couple of bathing trips to the watercourse.

It seems that we may have only one nuthatch visiting the yard, a fairly significant departure from past years.  Nuthatches secrete food in tree bark to retrieve later.  I watched as this nuthatch attempted to wedge a tidbit from one of the feeders into a crack in a madrone tree.  Notice the food below and to the left of the nuthatch, wedged into the crack.  It should have left well enough alone.  In attempting to further secure the seed in the crack it dislodged it and immediately dropped to retrieve it.

And finally (there’s always a ‘finally’!), here’s a female Northern flicker on our peanut feeder.  I usually don’t post photos of birds on feeders, but I liked the details in this photo.  Incidentally, this is a feeder that discriminates against non-clinging birds.  For the most part this feeder caters to woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and bushtits.  Birds that aren’t used to clinging to things tend to avoid this type of feeder.  If I can help you with feeder advice, let me know!

I want to express my appreciation to friends for complimenting me on my photography!

Back to Arizona…

After leaving Green Valley we headed south and decided to visit an area we had never visited before.  We had an Arizona birding guide but we were having a difficult time reconciling our map, the guide and our GPS and we weren’t even sure of our destination.  But we saw a sign pointing to Lake Arivaca and, reasoning that a lake in the desert might be a big attractor for birds, we headed for the lake.  We came to a part of the road that was paved, but the easiest way over it was to drive on the unpaved roadside where we could.  One unhappy property owner had erected a large sign proclaiming the road as the “worst maintained road in Pima County”!

Our trip to the lake was worth the effort chiefly due to the presence of a pair of Vermillion flycatchers working the trees around the dirt parking lot.  These photos are representative of the almost 40 photos I took of the pair.

On the way back through civilization we saw this Black-throated sparrow on a fence post. I was elated to obtain this photo, but later in the trip we encountered others.

Once back to civilization we continued to Patagonia where we stopped at the house formerly owned by the Paton’s and now under stewardship of the Tucson Audubon Society.  It’s famous for its hummingbirds, but while there are many feeders the photographic opportunities aren’t that great.  However there is habitat work in progress (a pond, sun shelter and seating) that promises to improve both viewing and photographic opportunities.  All the remaining photos were taken at that location.

A ‘wild-haired’ female Northern cardinal…

A pair of Inca doves…

A female Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race)…

A male Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race)…

As I anticipated, I didn’t make it very far into my AZ inventory before I came up with some good yard photos that I think bear posting. I sat in the yard for about an hour and a half this afternoon (5/2/2017) after sighting a Brown creeper through our kitchen window. The creeper escaped the camera but I managed to photograph several other visitors.

This Orange-crowned warbler visited the yard at least five times, finally coming to the bird bath on its third and subsequent visits.  (I’m assuming that it was the same bird but it could have been different birds.)

One of the male American goldfinches in the yard…

One of the female American goldfinches in the yard…

This Rufous hummingbird was hanging around the yard this afternoon.  It’s apparently a female, but the throat originally gave me pause.  It’s too early for a sub-adult, so we’ll have to go with the female designation.  I can’t be sure that the bird in this first photo is the same as the one in the other two photos.

As you might be aware, it’s been some time since I posted to my blog… and with good reason.  In mid-April I traveled to Arizona for about ten days and then made a quick turnaround and went to Texas for about a week.  Both of these were birding trips so the good news is that I now have a vastly increased inventory of Southwestern bird images for the blog.  The bad news is that I now must process those images.  I have 985 images from the AZ trip and 1435 from the TX trip.  You will never see the majority of those images but I must sort through ALL of them!

To add to my workload, it’s time for spring arrivals here at the house.  My wife tells me that warblers have already started arriving and the grosbeaks should be close behind.  That means I will be drawn to the yard for more photography.  Depending on what shows up, I may be tempted to insert some current photos before I complete processing photos from my travels.    If you are interested in birding and live in the Anacortes area you are always welcome to join me in the yard for observation or photography with advance notice.

But let’s get on with the show and commentary.  These first few photos were taken at a motel in Green Valley, AZ.  (If you are an environmentalist you might be interested in researching the city on the internet… and don’t be tempted to move there like more than one of our PacNW friends!)

This first photo is of a Cactus wren, seemingly very common throughout AZ.  (I just had a thought that this might be the State Bird of AZ so I inquired on the internet and found I was right!)  In later posts you will probably see several photos of Cactus wrens in or near their nests.  This one seemed to be eating ants in the gravel.

A White-winged dove sitting on an Ocotillo bloom.  We found Ocotillo seemingly at the peak of their bloom throughout the state.

And another visitor to an Ocotillo bush, this a House finch eating blossoms.  By happenstance I happened to catch this finch just as it dropped a part of the blossom.

Stay tuned for more AZ photos!