I had a great hour and a half of yard birding late on the afternoon of February 26, 2025. I took 250 photos and kept almost half. I had no unusual birds but a lot of visits (and photographic opportunities) from the usual visitors. It’s a bit discouraging not being able to post photos of unusual visitors, but my photography is totally dependent on who arrives in the yard and what opportunities I am given for photos. However, I am encouraged by the quality of some of the photos I am obtaining. Birding friends and I are alarmed by some of the birds we aren’t seeing but I’m looking forward to the spring migration and hopeful it will be a good one… better than what I experienced last year.

Here are some of the birds I photographed on February 26, 2025…

A female Downy woodpecker, a fairly regular visitor attracted to my suet feeder…

A Pine siskin, one of a handful that are currently visiting the yard from time to time. The siskins seem to be equally attracted to sunflower seed and water features.

A Black-capped chickadee, one of two chickadee species that are in the yard almost all day long and are attracted by suet, peanuts and sunflower seeds.

A Chestnut-backed chickadee, our other resident chickadee species.

A Golden-crowned kinglet, one of two kinglet species who visit the yard fairly rarely.

A Ruby-crowned kinglet, the other kinglet species visitor.

A White-crowned sparrow, the only new visitor among these photos. While some of these sparrows are present year-round, I get them in the yard only in the spring and summer.

This was a second White-crowned sparrow that appeared the same day. This is probably a first year bird born last summer which hasn’t yet morphed into adult plumage.