I have had a very productive month of yard photography, with two new species of birds visiting the yard.  The first, a female American redstart, was displayed in my prior blog post on this site.  The yard has been so productive it’s been difficult to tear myself away, but increasing problems with my right hand have made me want to limit my typing.

So here is the month in a capsule…

In early September we had a visit from a pair of Stellar’s jays. Theirs was a one-day visit and I managed only one distant photo of one of the birds. My wife and I made a trip to Oregon September 17 – 22.  On the morning after we returned (September 23) at least one of the jays was back in the yard. Early the next morning my wife saw the jay accessing our small platform feeder and taking a peanut. By the time I made it into the yard with my camera the bird was gone, but I was motivated for photographs and spent considerable time in the yard unsuccessfully waiting for it to return over the next few days.

On September 24, waiting in the yard for the jays, I managed to obtain nice photos of a male  Anna’s hummingbird and a male Downy woodpecker.

Later the afternoon of September 24 I was taking a break from the Seahawks game (they ended up losing to New York by six points) and sitting outside by the kitchen window I noticed some movement over to my side where we have a large area of flat ground cover. There was a small bird with a big eye and wing bars staring at me. I realized almost immediately that it was a Hutton’s vireo, a very unusual visitor to the yard and difficult to pick out from the background of American goldfinches and considerable other bird activity in the yard. After a few seconds the vireo flew up into a small grove of trees over and behind me… and it was backlit. I thought it would fly down to water but I never saw it again. I really hated being in the yard with my camera and not getting a photo of the vireo.

My sister, who lives outside Austin, Texas, and hosts my spring birding travels to the area, has never seen a Varied thrush. She and her family have made plans to join us for Thanksgiving and I told her that we would try to find a Varied thrush. I knew that the thrushes came down from the mountains in the winter but thought that they might not arrive until November. I checked my records and was somewhat surprised to find that I had logged all first arrivals in October (except last year’s in November) so I am hopeful that we might have some around the house by then.

Late on the same afternoon ( September 24) I looked out the kitchen window and saw an American robin or two in the yard, but one perched on a bench with its back to me looked a little odd. Realizing that the robins and thrushes often travel together I grabbed my binoculars and while I was gazing at the bird it turned and I could see that it was a male Varied thrush, our first of the season and the earliest I had logged one over the past ten years. I am hoping this bodes well for being able to find one for my sister at Thanksgiving.

As if all this wasn’t enough, on September 25 I was still waiting in the yard to get photos of the jays when a small finch-like bird caught my attention. I initially thought it resembled a female Purple finch, but I had never seen (or at least identified) one in the ten years we‘ve lived at this location. I managed to take many photos and submitted some of them to friends more knowledgable than I. The confirmation was that it was a female Purple finch, and by that afternoon I had two of the female finches in the yard. So this represented yet another new yard bird!

Soon after one of the Stellar jays showed up in the yard and I obtained some photographs, thus successfully ending a several days’ frustrating wait.

Later in the afternoon I glanced out the kitchen window and spied two female Yellow-rumped warblers (Audubon’s) in and around the watercourse at the same time and managed to get outside in time to get photos of both.

Later while outside, I had a visit from a Brown creeper, an infrequent and difficult to photograph visitor. I managed to get some photos of it while it was around one of the water features.

Finally, late in the afternoon a female Northern flicker flew into the yard, a fairly common occurrence. However in this case the flicker visited a stone bird bath and I was able to get several very good photos.

I was quite happy with my accomplishments for the month but was sitting in the yard with my camera just after noon on September 26 when I was startled by a Cooper’s hawk which flew right in front of me and landed on one of my staging branches less than eight feet away!  We sat eye-to-eye for about two minutes before it flew to another staging perch only about 20 feet away, where I was able to slowly reposition my camera for several photos.

The photos were so sharp I was able to read the details on the hawk’s leg bands. I managed to contact the bander and discovered that the hawk is a year-old female that was banded in Seattle and released across Fidalgo Bay from us.  I was told that she’s old enough to breed and it could be that she’s currently looking for a mate.

In all likelihood, unless something very special happens along by early October, this will be my last post for awhile due to outpatient surgery on my finger, wrist and arm, all in one trip to the operating room!  I’ll leave you with this Cannon Beach, OR, sunset photo I took. earlier this month  I hope to return to the blogging/photography world soon.

On Sep 5, 2017, I was monitoring bird activity in the yard when I spied a warbler flitting among the trees in a grove of madrones at the edge of the yard. The bird was unusually active and I couldn’t get a good look at it. I saw that it had a gray head and considered a MacGillivray’s warbler but the yellow colors on the bird didn’t look right. I next considered a Yellow-rumped warbler due to the patches of yellow on the bird, but the yellow wasn’t in the right locations. I realized that I was seeing a new warbler for the yard and one with which I was not familiar.

I was desperate for a photo of the bird for identification, but its depth in the madrones and it’s flitting activity were in danger of precluding this. Suddenly the bird flew towards me and landed in the open less than ten feet away on a staging stick that I had erected only a few days previously. I was able to take over 30 very good photos of the bird. After it left the yard I rushed to process the photos so that I could identify the bird. I knew it was a warbler and after a little investigation identified it as a female American redstart, a bird I had seen and photographed in Texas (and probably AZ) but that I had never expected to show up in our yard in Anacortes. Needless to say, this was a very, very unexpected visitor to our yard.

The next day (Sep 6) I pulled into our driveway and immediately spotted an accipiter (probably a Cooper’s hawk that’s been roaming the neighborhood) preening on a log in the yard. I had no chance to get into the house and retrieve my camera before the bird flew.

A short time later I looked out our kitchen window and saw the/another female American redstart bathing in the watercourse! How could this be?! I ran for my camera but as is so often the case, by the time I got into the yard the bird was gone. However I wasn’t about to give up in case the bird returned so I camped in the yard for awhile. The redstart didn’t return but I observed/and photographed another rare visitor… a female Black-throated Gray warbler! My photos of this bird weren’t that good due to its shyness around other species of birds using the watercourse.

On Sep 9 just after noon I looked out the kitchen window and spied a female Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s) bathing in the watercourse. I knew I had caught it during the middle of its bath and that it probably wouldn’t be there long, so I watched to see where it flew after bathing. Just after it flew, movement at a stone birdbath caught my attention and I used my binoculars to observe an Orange-crowned warbler bathing. With this inspiration, I went out and sat just out of the rain under the eaves of the house… but there was no further activity while I was there.

We seem to be edging into fall despite one last weekend pf heat.  I’ve had a few warblers visiting the yard but not in any kind of numbers.  Most have been either female/juvenile Yellow warblers or male Wilson’s warblers, and I have no way to determine if it’s the same warbler visiting or a succession of different warblers.  I have also had visits by one or more female/juvenile Western tanager(s), somewhat difficult to separate from all the American goldfinches frequenting the feeders in the yard.

Yesterday (9/1) I had nice back-to-back photos of chickadees in the watercourse.  Since the difference in these species results in questions regarding their identification, I’ll (yet again) post photos identifying them.  This first photo is of a Black-capped chickadee, a bird that prefers deciduous habitat.

The following photo is of a Chestnut-backed chickadee, a bird that prefers the coniferous environment.  I take morning walks in Washington Park and ALL of the chickadees I encounter on the loop road, a road immersed in the firs and cedars, are of the Chestnut-backed species.

Also yesterday, over a significant period of time, I had at least four visits from one or more male Wilson’s warblers.  I suspect that it was more than one bird duet behaviors I observed.  This first photo is of a pre-bath male, that is what you might expect toes in a normal setting.

These next two photos are of a male in the middle of a bath, perhaps a little more difficult to identify.

PERSONAL NOTE:

Lastly, a note about my blog.  I’m muddling through three separate issues with my right hand and arm.  While a fairly competent touch-typist since the eighth grade (Thank you, Ms. Bagley, for both of our efforts I couldn’t appreciate at the time!), the issues make it extremely, frustratingly difficult for me to type.  Hopefully this will be corrected with three (!) surgeries I will undergo on the same day in early October.  No one knows how much of my typing ability I’ll be able to recover, or how long it might take me to recover, but it’s certain that my period of recovery will slow my blog postings.  My camera, lens and monopod weigh 13 pounds, so its likely that my photography might also be affected.  This is NOT a cry for sympathy but for understanding!