It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted to my blog… for good reason.  In mid-April we traveled to Arizona (Madera Canyon and Tucson) to bird and then a week after arriving back in Anacortes I left for about nine days in Texas in an attempt to catch a part of the spring migration.   At the time I left for the AZ trip I was already at least three days behind in processing photos taken here in Anacortes (on one of those days I took 180+ photos in the yard!), I took almost 1200 photos in AZ and returned from Texas with another 800+ photos.  Upon returning to Anacortes I have had spring migrants passing through the yard daily and so have been spending substantial time taking more photos instead of processing the backlog!  You’ll see some of the AZ and TX photos in upcoming blogs, but owing to the volume and happenings here in Anacortes it’s likely to be awhile.  

My best birding day since returning home was Wednesday, May 9.  On that day I had 6-7 visits from Orange-crowned warblers, two visits from a male Wilson’s warbler, a possible visit from a Yellow warbler (no photo) and in a first in memory for my yard, visits from two or more Yellow-rumped warblers of the Myrtle race.  

I also had a visit from a House wren (a pair are currently using one of our bird houses) and in the same week five male Brown-headed cowbirds (only one female with them) and our first Black-headed grosbeak (a male) which I had heard in the area for a couple of weeks before I found him visiting one of our feeders.  

So here are a few photos from May 9… 

Sadly, this was our last day for hosting our last two Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard. This was the last day they were seen… we look forward to hosting a small group this next fall/winter.

A male Wilson’s warbler, the warbler I consider our most common warbler visitor.

A very pale Orange-crowned warbler…

And photos of one or more Yellow-rumped (Myrtle’s) warblers.  Since in some photos I can discern a little yellow lurking in the crown, I suspect these birds are first-year males.