On the morning of April 25, 2022, as is my habit on the way back home from my morning walk, I drove by the Cap Sante Marina to see if there were any waterfowl or shorebirds in evidence. A single Common loon was “sleeping’ on the water! I rushed home, retrieved my camera and returned to the marina to find the loon in the same location, still “sleeping”. I use quotation marks around the sleeping because even though inactive, the loons seem to always have at least one eye open.

I watched the loon for a long time… maybe half an hour and it never lifted its head. It finally began cruising and I was able to obtain some good photos. This loon is still morphing into its breeding plumage, in contrast with the one I photographed on March 29, 2022. (See my post of April 11, Marina & Yard.)

As a bonus, there was a Great Blue heron fishing in the shallow water. The lack of wind allowed me to get a nice photo with the heron’s reflection in the water.

On April 19, 2022, I was graciously made aware of the apparent construction of a nesting cavity by a pair of Northern flickers. The following day I had an opportunity to monitor the activity. 

When first arriving at the site I found a dead fir tree, about 12 inches in diameter, that had been topped about 20 feet off the ground. The tree had  two holes holes about 10-12 feet above the ground and the lower hole bore the marks of fresh excavation. Small wood chips littered the ground around the base of the tree. 

There seemed to be no activity around the site and my attention was focused getting my chair positioned and my camera adjusted for the photographic conditions. 

I was ready for monitoring and glanced up at the hole to see both the male and female clinging to the tree beside the hole!  Before I could bring my camera to bear both bids flew to the top of a power pole across the street and engaged in action that will eventually result in baby woodpeckers. The female then flew to the top of a distant tree and after a few minutes the male flew back to the tree and entered the nesting cavity. 

Thus began continuation of construction on the nesting cavity. The male would completely disappear and I would hear several minutes of muffled tapping sounds, then he would reappear several times and toss wood chips out the hole. 

I watched for 30-40 minutes, taking many photos which didn’t offer a lot of variation.  In the photos below you can see the male with a beak full of wood chips in one photo and just-tossed chips in another. The female never returned during my observations. 

There should be a lesson here for the value of retaining some vestige of dead trees!  Not only do they provide potential homesites for cavity-nesting birds, but as various insect species tunnel into the wood aiding in the natural process of decay, the parents can pluck them out to provide a tasty buffet for the young birds.

I had a nice day in the yard (photographically) on April 10, 2022. There was little wind but a couple of episodes of very lite (it wasn’t fattening!) sleet. I don’t have a lot of commentary so I’m just going to post some photos.

I will comment on the Golden-crowned sparrows. We’ve probably had as many as eight in the yard at one time, a banner year for us. They will soon be leaving for breeding grounds north and east of here. Many are apparently molting into their breeding plumage and some are looking very ‘rough’! This one, probably a male, is one of the more attractive ones.

I’m still without a functional watercourse at the house and we’re just at the beginning of the spring migration, so I haven’t had a lot of interesting photos to post. (More about the yard situation to follow.) 

On March 29, while driving by the Cap Sante Marina on my way home, I spied a Common loon in full breeding plumage!  I immediately drove home, retrieved my camera and returned to the marina.  Fortunately the loon was still there and with a little maneuvering I managed to obtain some good photos. 

I finally lost the loon among the docks and drove around to the Seafarers Memorial to see if it might be on the other side of the marina. It wasn’t, but I found another Common loon… not in breeding plumage and “sleeping”, but still keeping a wary eye on me!  

I enjoyed watching this loon.  There was never any apparent movement above the water surface, but as I moved carefully closer the loon appeared to slowly drift further from shore, carefully maintaining the distance between us.  

Back to the yard. I haven’t had a functional watercourse since sometime before Christmas. My watercourse was losing too much water and the weather was bad (cold and rain) and I just didn’t feel like dealing with the problem under those conditions. 

In March, with somewhat improved weather I began troubleshooting the watercourse problem(s).  Having no success I summoned a commercial landscaping company to replace the liner. At this point, April 11, the watercourse fix is still a work in progress. 

However, even without the watercourse, I’m seeing signs of the start of spring migration. On April 4, I had three separate visits from one or more Orange-crowned warblers. (Since all these birds look alike, I have no way of knowing whether I was observing one bird or three different ones or some combination.)  These were my first observations of warblers in the yard this year. While I managed to photograph all three visits, none of the photos are good enough to post.

On April 6 I had another observation of an Orange-crowned warbler but failed to obtain a photo.

On April 7 I had a visit from a beautiful male Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warbler.  This bird briefly flew around the yard, took a quick bath in a birdbath beside me, plucked a small insect from a Japanese maple, and perched on a wire fence not three feet from me to consume the insect!  It was too close at that point for a photo but a great experience for me!  

All of these warbler visits were very brief and I’m sure that had the watercourse been functioning, their stays, and my opportunities for photographs, would have been longer. 

I had a nice photography day on April 10, 2022. I’ll try to post some of those photos fairly quickly.