On October 17, 2024, I had a relatively brief window of time to spend in the yard in the late afternoon and, seeing some intermittent bird activity in the yard from my office, I retrieved my camera and relocated to the yard. There was’t much of interest when I arrived but after some time my attention was drawn to activity on a snag I had “planted” at the edge of the yard. Sitting on that snag was a female Varied thrush, the first for our fall/winter season! I managed to take a few photos before the bird descended into the yard, but it was initially behind some bushes that obscured my vision.

After about ten minutes the bird emerged at my stone bird bath for some water where I was able to obtain a couple of additional photos.

We usually have had a few Varied thrushes hang around the yard the entire winter, but last year they only made rare appearances. They are beautiful birds.. I’m hoping for more this coming season..

Not long after one of the thrush’s visits a Ruby-crowned kinglet flew into the Japanese maple immediately adjacent to me… too close for photos! It quickly disappeared but it, or another, returned a short time later for a bath in a location more conducive for photographs. Unfortunately the bird’s frenetic movement didn’t afford me the opportunity for any but this most basic photo, as you see here.

Both of these birds are winter visitors. The thrushes come down from the mountains in the winter in search of a more reliable food supply. I see, on rare occasions, a Ruby-crowned kinglet but the Golden-crowned kinglets (see prior post) are much more frequent visitors.

Late in the morning of October 12, 2024, I arrived at the Bayview State Park to photograph birds I had seen eating hawthorn berries the previous day. There were a few birds entering the tree, but for the most part they remained in the canopy where I couldn’t photograph them. The squirrels were more cooperative. I spent a couple of relatively frustrating hours at the park before giving up and returning home.

Late in the afternoon I decided to try my luck in my yard. Things in the yard weren’t especially encouraging when suddenly an Orange-crowned warbler appeared and accessed two of my water features. l got a lot of good photos! This photo might be one of the best of an Orange-crowned warbler I’ve ever taken, and I have several more of the same bird of similar quality.

It wasn’t long after before a Golden-crowned kinglet appeared and gave me some good opportunities for photographs.

Next up was a Brown creeper, a daily visitor as of late.

In fading light I photographed this White-crowned sparrow, probably born this year and raised in the area. It’s possible, but I regard as improbable, that this bird is an adult but a tan morph of the species. A photo of an adult, taken earlier in the same afternoon and at the same water feature, appears below it for comparison.

So far this fall I’ve had seven species of sparrows in the yard:

• Spotted towhee
• Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco
• House sparrow
• Song sparrow
• White-crowned sparrow
• Golden-crowned sparrow
• Fox sparrow

Dorothy was right… “There’s no place like home“!

I quickly reviewed my website before posting this and found I’ve been mostly posting photos of the same birds. It can’t be helped when they’re the only ones that show up!  Hopefully the photos are a little different in terms of poses or perches. To keep my photos looking different, from time to time I vary my staging sticks. Sometimes it’s psychology difficult to do so. When you create a good staging stick and the birds make good use of it, it’s hard to give it up!  

I’ve been able to spend a little more time in the yard lately. Fall is another major period of avian transition, with spring//summer birds leaving and fall/winter birds arriving. I’ve had a few sightings of birds I usually think of as migrants, but some of them are here year-round, just in fewer numbers than in the spring migration. 

One example is the Orange-crowned warbler, a fairly common spring visitor but much rarer in the fall and winter. The species visited the yard twice this week and gave me uncommon opportunities for photos. 

Another species that appeared in the yard for several days is the Yellow-rumped warbler, almost always apparently a female or juvenile. 

I’ve had a Brown creeper almost every day and was able to obtain better than average photos of one in more recent days. Creepers are very active and I get my best opportunities for photographs when the creeper’s favorite bird bath is occupied by another species. It doesn’t like communal bathing and so slows somewhat and lingers on the side of a madrone, waiting for other birds to leave. 

I get daily visits from Golden-crowned kinglets but often don’t get an opportunity for photos because they like to use a pedestal bird bath immediately adjacent to me. This one is a male, one of a flock of five kinglets that visited the yard on October 5, 2024.

I still have at least two White-crowned sparrows that visit the yard, one an adult and the other either a juvenile or a tan-morph subspecies. 

Dark-eyed (Oregon) juncos are beginning to return for the winter. In some years they edge out Pine siskins and House sparrows for the most numerous species in the yard, but this year I think the House sparrows may win out thanks to neighbors’ nest boxes with over-sized holes. The sparrows are hatched elsewhere but are attracted to my yard because of more nutritious food offerings. 

I’ve mustered as many as about six Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard at one time but they seem to come and go at this point. I should have a more permanent population of around ten for the winter. 

I was able to spend a little time in the yard on September 30, 2024. For quite a while the yard was virtually empty, but late in the afternoon a diverse group of small birds began entering the yard. This collection of birds consists of some of our smallest visitors.

One of my first small visitors was a male Anna’s hummingbird accessing one of many salvias planted in the yard just to attract hummingbirds. (The salvias are a great yard plant… they don’t freeze, the deer don’t bother them snd they bloom from spring to fall.)

This male Golden-crowned kinglet appeared in the yard and spent considerable time posing very near to me, giving me an excellent opportunity for a lot of photos.

The surprise of the afternoon was a Ruby-crowned kinglet, a relatively rare visitor to the yard. I was lucky that I was able to obtain the following photo because the bird quickly moved higher in the canopy and intermingled with a flock of Bushtits where I lost it. .

Speaking of Bushtits, I had two visits from one or more flocks. The one pictured below is a male.

Finally, this Brown creeper showed up for a bath after touring the yard. As I’ve mentioned before, this is a difficult bird to photograph because it is almost constantly moving and is so camouflaged that my camera seems to have trouble focusing on the bird.