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“!