On Saturday, September 15, 2018, I had just waken from a short nap. I had checked the yard for birds and there weren’t any, so I was channel surfing when I heard a soft window strike. The sound was so soft I assumed that it was just a glancing blow so I wasn’t concerned, but the strike signaled that birds had returned to the yard so I decided to verify the birds’ presence. I glanced out the window and immediately saw a Golden-crowned kinglet on one of the staging sticks next to the watercourse. This was our first fall visitor of that species!
I immediately ran for my camera and sneaked to my observation chair in the yard but found it was not only wet but that very light rain was currently falling. I made the decision to sit under the eave next to the house. When I looked down to arrange my chair I spied a Golden-crowned kinglet on the paved walkway, evidently the victim of the window strike I had heard. (This indicated that there had been two of them visiting the yard.) I picked up the bird and held it in my hand for about 15-minutes to keep it warm. While I did so a second kinglet visited the watercourse.
I’m always amazed at how small such birds actually are. I spend considerable time enlarging photos so that birds can be viewed better and it just doesn’t seem possible that these birds are so light, delicate and small.
It seemed uninjured so after awhile I placed it on a staging stick adjacent to the watercourse and kept a close eye on it to ensure that it didn’t fly into the water. It stayed on the stick for about 10-15 minutes (during which time I took advantage of the situation and took some photos). When a House sparrow flew to the watercourse the kinglet seemed to show more interest, grew more animated and soon flew into a madrone tree, evidencing normal, active behavior.
I had another visit from a Golden-crowned kinglet before I gave up photography for the day.
Just before retiring I photographed his juvenile Spotted towhee around the watercourse.
I checked my records for both the Golden-crowned sparrow that first appeared in the yard on September 14 and the Golden-crowned kinglet that visited this day and they were the earliest seasonal visits I had for both birds.