The following photos were all taken on April 10, 2023.
The first photos here are of the White-throated sparrow that’s been an intermittent visitor to our yard over the past couple of months. Although widely distributed across the US, in the past it’s been a very rare visitor to our yard. Its rarity is enhanced by its feeding habits… when it’s in the yard it’s very active and quickly moves between open areas and bushes, making it difficult to photograph. Yesterday was a bonus day…. I’m not sure how many photos I got of the bird but I retained 23!
This next photo is of the sparrow waiting for “manna from heaven”. We have an inverted suet feeder in the yard that is accessed by many species of birds. Northern flickers are fairly frequent visitors and they are somewhat messy eaters, stabbing at the suet which results in small pieces falling to the ground under the feeder. Many of our birds have learned to exploit the flickers’ messy feeding habit and hang out under the feeder for bits of suet that fall. In this photo the White-crowned sparrow is watching the flicker feed in the hopes of garnering some suet!
Several weeks ago we purchased another bird bath (as if we need another one!) which I plan to use as something of a migrant trap. I’ve located the water feature where many of the migrants seem to enter the yard and where I should be able to obtain excellent photos. Now I just need some migrants! The current locals have just begun to visit the water feature, but we have yet to observe a single warbler in the yard this year.
The following photos were all taken at the new water feature…
A White-crowned sparrow…
You might guess from the following photographs that we have an abundance of Golden-crowned sparrows this year and you would be right! In past years we have only had about 6-8 in the yard at one time, but this year it’s been easy for me to lose track of my count at more then 15.
This male California quail was peeking out over the new water feature…
Getting away from the new water feature, this California quail was crossing the yard. We’re down to about five quail from a winter high of about 18 (in one large covey). Hopefully the rest have paired up and are busy trying to bring new ones into the world.
I photographed this male Anna’s hummingbird while on the phone with our tax preparer finalizing our taxes! Multitasking at its finest! We’ve had a few Rufous hummingbird visitors but none have remained in the yard or tried to commandeer a feeder.
And finally, when the birding gets slow we usually have this visitor to fill in my photographic efforts… a Townsend’s chipmunk.
