Friday (4/6/2018) was a good day for photography so I took my recently repaired lens and camera and headed for Fir Island and areas to the south.

My first discovery was several Red-winged blackbirds at a small wetland area.  This male thought it important to defend his territory.

One of the females remained in the wetland with some nesting material in her beak.

Next up, what is presumably a male Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race).

And a female singing…

Next… something very special to me.  This is a Dark-eyed junco (Slate-colored), the only other one I’ve seen in Skagit County outside of our yard.  As I’ve noted previously in this blog, we’ve had at least one (and usually only one) in our yard for the past eleven years.  I’m under no illusions that we’re seeing the same bird each year, but it’s really strange that we seem to have only one and that one has spent the last eleven winters with us.

On Fir Island I found this very cooperative Savannah sparrow.  It flew to a fence post in front of my car, then quickly decided to move a fence post closer and break out into song! In between songs it would turn and look me directly in the eye like it was checking its performance.

In the same general are I found this Northern shrike.  It, on the other hand, was not at all cooperative.  I probably spent over an hour patiently waiting for the bird to return to what was apparently a favorite perch, but had to settle for these photos taken from twice as far away.

I’ve saved the best for last!  This is a female Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race) who was good enough to pose for many photos.

We had another migrant first arrival on Saturday, March 31.  I saw the first Turkey vulture soar over our house.  It’s a bird with which we are very familiar due to our Texas connections.

We also had a visit today (April 1) from an accipiter, but I didn’t get a long enough view to ascertain if it was the same Cooper’s hawk that I photographed in the yard last September and published on my blog.

Meanwhile I’ve got a few more photos of yard visitors, taken within the past day or two.

I mentioned in the last blog or two that I had had trouble photographing a female Bushtit in the yard this spring, but I finally photographed one across the yard. Note the yellow eye which identifies the bird as a female.

At least one male Varied thrush is still visiting the yard and eating hulled sunflower seed that I scatter on the ground a couple of times a day.  I’m still trying to figure out why these thrushes eat seed!  I expect that the thrush will be heading to the mountains for breeding season any day now, but maybe they sense that there’s been a late snow and are waiting for a better food supply.

This is the single, prominent White-crowned sparrow that we’ve had in the yard for the past couple of weeks, and that I was having a difficult time photographing.  Last season we had a mating pair but if I’m not mistaken they only fledged a Brown-headed cowbird.

We still have over a half dozen Golden-crowned sparrows that have wintered over and haven’t left for their summer breeding grounds further north.  I’m fairly certain that it’s the most we’ve ever had.  The birds are beginning to morph into their breeding plumage and I’m showing you this photo to illustrate how pitiful they now look.  This one is apparently a male as you can see the beginning of a bright golden crown and the black lines on either side of the crown.  Just about the time they get their full breeding plumage they disappear for the summer and early fall, returning in late fall for the winter.

And finally a bit of serendipity.  I was photographing a lily in the yard when it had a quick visit from a male Rufous hummingbird.  At my lens’ magnification, only a short distance is in sharp focus.  Unless the bird is photographed broadside, usually some part of the bird is out of focus.  So even though this hummingbird was only a few inches from the lily, both couldn’t be in focus.  Since I was actually photographing the lily, the image of the hummingbird is what suffered.  But I thought it an interesting photo!