Over the past week or so we’ve had very brief visits from a couple of Orange-crowned warblers and, on April 13, a male Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warbler. Even though I was in the yard with my camera for these visits I was unable to obtain any photos. Today (April 15, 2020), my persistence finally paid off. About 3:40pm I became aware of some motion behind me and partially turned to see a male Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warbler behind me. It quickly flew to the area of the watercourse, and although investigating the watercourse thoroughly, it never descended to the water. That didn’t keep me from taking about 50 photos of the bird. When it left the yard it flew high in the air and disappeared over the tops of some very tall fir trees. This leads me to think it wasn’t the same bird as the previous visitor but was instead a different migrant passing through.

Later in the afternoon an unlikely alliance, crows and Common ravens, chased a Red-tailed hawk through the trees in the yard. It happened too fast for me to react with my camera, but a few minutes later the hawk returned at a higher, and safer from harassment, altitude.

As a special bonus, I’m throwing in this photo of a male House sparrow.