I only spent about two hours in the yard on June 1 but came up with three warbler sightings with photos of all three.  At the time I was photographing this first warbler I assumed that it was an Orange-crowned warbler due to the muted colors.  In such circumstances my main focus (pun intended) is on obtaining photos, so I don’t worry so much about identification as I reason that I can always determine species when I process the photos.  Such was the case here, and after seeing the wing bars I realized that my initial ID was probably incorrect.  After examining this (and two other photos) I have decided that this is a first-year female Yellow warbler.  I’m not an expert on these matters and if someone has a different opinion I would like to hear it…  Hearing none, I’ll move on…

There’ no doubt as to the identity of the second of my warbler visitors… it was a male Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warbler and of the three warblers it was the only one to actually visit the watercourse.

The last of my warbler visitors for the day was a male Wilson’s warbler.  This isn’t the greatest photo but it documents my sightings.

A female Anna’s hummingbird…

A male House finch obtaining a drink of water,,,

This is (probably a juvenile) female Downy woodpecker…

And finally, a male Red-winged blackbird. We’ve had several pair flying up from the city’s wastewater treatment pond (where they nest) to access our feeders.  There has been substantial traffic over the last couple of weeks, especially since the young fledged and learned to make the journey up the hill to our yard instead of having to relay on the parents having to transport seed back to the nest.  However the traffic has started to slow and my budget for seed is beginning to return to more normal conditions.

May 31, 2018, evolved as a really good day for birding in the yard.  The birding began when I returned from my morning activities, looked out the kitchen window and saw what seemed like a rather oddly-colored male House finch on our small platform feeder.  I grabbed my binoculars;ars and discovered the first Red crossbill (this one a male) we’ve seen in over a year!  I rushed outside with my camera determined to get some kind of photo of this special visitor.  This was my first (‘record’) photo of it behind madrona leaves…

But I didn’t have to be satisfied with that first photo.  The bird came and went from the yard most of the day.

Another resident, but except for vocalizations all day long, somewhat secretive, was this House wren that elected to take a rare bath in the watercourse.  I think a pair nested in or around the yard due to all the vocalizations over the last few weeks.

Black-headed grosbeaks are regular visitors to the yard, but I see the male much more than the female.

We have both Anna’s and Rufous hummingbirds, male and females, in the yard.  Now that our salvia are blooming they provide the opportunity to photograph the hummingbirds in a more natural setting.  This female Rufous hummingbird is accessing one of the salvias.

We have at least two mated pair of California quail visiting the yard several times a day but so far we have seen no chicks, which is somewhat worrisome.

At least one pair of Brown-headed cowbirds have been with us for several weeks now.  So far we have not seen any juveniles being raised by other species.  .