Harking back to what I just said about sexing kinglets in my last blog, here is a photo of a female Golden-crowned kinglet in my watercourse on March 8…

You’ll note that even with a decent view of the back of the bird’s head there’s no hint of a red/orange crown.

Here is a photo of a male Golden-crowned kinglet from about the same angle, and you can clearly see the red streak in the middle of the gold crown.

THIESE ARE IMAGES OF THE SAME BIRD… A MALE! I think this illustrates why I’m hesitant to label any kinglet as a female!

I began my birding on March 10, 2025, attempting to get an opportunity to photograph a loon that has been frequenting the in the Cap Sante Marina as of late. The problem is, the loon can swim 50 feet, under and to the far side of a dock, requiring me to walk a couple of hundred yards for another possible opportunity for photographs. And by the time I make the walk, the loon can have moved yet again. Having gotten wiser in my old age, I gave up… and headed for March’s Point!

I almost immediately discovered this Bald eagle in the top of a tree, affording a good photographic opportunity.

I next encountered a small group of Northern pintails along the east/south end of March Point Road. They were somewhat closer to shore than they often are which afforded me the opportunity for some photographs.

Just as I was leaving the March Point area I discovered this Belted kingfisher which allowed an uncharacteristically close approach. Two drawbacks… one, the bird was severely backlit and two, since I couldn’t see the bird’s breast, I couldn’t tell if it was male or female.

Upon arriving back at the house I found a regular feeder visitor for the past couple of months… an Orange-crowned warbler. As I believe I have mentioned previously, it enjoys feeding from suet, peanut and sunflower feeders! I’m sure it’s also dining on insects, so this is probably the warbler with the most diversified diet in the county!

Stumbling on towards the end of this blog… I’ve been waiting for many weeks now to photograph a kinglet on top of a certain Oregon grape plant located under my suet feeder. The kinglets won’t visit the suet feeder directly but sometimes visit the area under the feeder to glean pieces of suet dislodged by other birds. This was my day! This Golden-crowned kinglet (of undetermined sex!) paused long enough for me to obtain a photograph! I don’t consider it a great photo but it’s not bad!

Finally, I was just about to turn in for the afternoon when I glanced up at one of my hummingbird feeders for this sight… my first female Rufous hummingbird of the season!

I don’t normally like to take/post photos of birds on feeders, but this was the only photo of the bird I was able to obtain… what I refer to as a “record” shot. There will be many more opportunities for photos of these females later this spring and summer.