I’ve had a nice spring, often taking between 200-400 photos in the yard in a single day! But the BIG bird news this spring is that I had two species visit the yard that I have never seen in my 20+ years of birding in Skagit County!

The first species was a Chipping sparrow that showed up in the yard on May 13. As is often the case, I managed to use the bird’s behavior to differentiate it from all the House sparrows, Pine siskins and American goldfinches which have been in the yard this spring. The bird didn’t co-mingle with all the other birds and took a different route around the watercourse. I looked closer and saw the rufous crown and was fairly certain of the species, but there are several other species of sparrows with rufous crowns and I waited until I processed the photos to make a positive identification.

This is a very common and gregarious species across North America during the summer months, and a very common bird in Texas during the winter… the professed bane of my Texas sister’s existence! My guess is that they are rare west of the Cascades but more common east of the Cascades where the habitat is more to their liking.

The second rare visitor was a male Lazuli bunting, a species that showed up in our yard on May 28. I was sitting in the yard trying to sort the avian traffic when I saw a blue head through the foliage on our Golden Chain tree. I took a couple of quick photos in case the bird didn’t fully reveal itself, but the bird worked its way towards our watercourse (and me) and I was able to identify it and take many photos.

Lazuli buntings are found rather extensively in the western US during summer months. My wife and I usually see the species when birding in AZ, a much drier climate than we have in Skagit County. Although distribution maps show the species extending into the lower parts of Canada, the birds are probably much more common east of the Cascades due to the drier habitat.