Birding in the yard has been generally uninteresting this summer. We have had a Black-headed grosbeak or two that have stopped by the yard, but they don’t come often and they are extremely wary… any movement on my part sends them out of the yard. The most interesting birds in the yard have been the various juveniles that have appeared. The Brown-headed cowbirds have done their damage despite the adults being almost entirely absent from the yard. Spotted towhee and White-crowned sparrow nests have both been parasitized and we’ve had several juvenile Brown-headed cowbirds show up in the yard.

European starlings have fledged and are showing up at the suet feeder and watercourse. The juveniles pictured here are transitioning into their adult plumage.

As long and I’m into the ‘rogues gallery’, I’ll include these photos of male House sparrows, a couple of too many visiting the yard. We’re overrun with House sparrows, the result of neighborhood residents allowing them to propagate and then the birds coming to our yard for better habitat with more nutritious foods and running water.

One of the bright spots (pun intended) are the male House finches coming to the yard. We’ve had several interesting males, including bright ones and those with an orange color.

But the primary reason for this post is a pair of visitors I had on August 13, the day that all of the photos in this post were taken. I was encouraged in that the day began overcast, the first such day in several weeks. The overcast provides much better light for birding photography than bright sunlight.

I’ve been hoping for several weeks for visits from Cedar waxwings. A couple of weeks ago I got a glimpse of at lest one in the watercourse but it left before I could get outside with my camera. On this day I saw one of the waxwings on one of our Golden Chain trees just above the watercourse and was able to photograph it and a presumed mate extensively as the birds made two separate trips to the watercourse to bathe.