Easter Sunday was a great day for birding photography with slightly overcast skies, and on this day the birds cooperated. I had my third warbler of the season arrive in the yard and I quickly lost my seasonal count of the numbers of individual warblers that subsequently arrived.

I posted myself in the yard about noon and the first warbler of the day, an Orange-crowned warbler, arrived shortly thereafter, It came to the watercourse for a bath so I obtained good photos, with most showing the bird’s orange crown.

About an hour later I had a second sighting of an Orange-crowned warbler and I’m fairly certain it was a different bird than the first. Since I obtained photos of both I could compare the images and see that the two sightings were apparently of different birds.

I had a brief influx of at least a couple of juvenile Pine siskins, the first I have ever felt comfortable identifying as juveniles. These birds were absolutely adorable!

Here is an adult Pine Siskin for comparison…

About 1:30pm I went inside to perform some food preparation but in looking out my kitchen window I saw a male Yellow-rumped warbler bathing in the watercourse. I raced for my camera and tried to sneak outside for photos, but such efforts have a relatively low success rate and this time was no different. The bird flew without me being able to obtain any photos, a big disappointment! While I was still outside, a short time later a female Yellow-rumped warbler entered the yard via a usual warbler route. I saw her approaching through bushes but she spooked upon reaching the water feature and I again had no opportunity for photos.

I returned to cooking chores but was outside when two Red-breasted nuthatches accessed one of the water features. I mention this because it’s relatively rare for me to have two nuthatches in the yard at the same time. This appeared to be a pair so I’m hopeful I may see some young at some point.

Next up, at 3:40pm, were a pair of Yellow-rumped warblers that both entered the watercourse at the same time and bathed. I have no way of knowing if either of these birds were the same as those I saw earlier but was unable to photograph, but I did obtain photos of this pair.

I obtained several nice photos of one of two White-crowned sparrows I have in the yard. It seems like I get a mating pair every year but they are often parasitized by Brown-headed cowbirds.

So on this day I saw two different species of warblers and at least four different warblers. I’m looking forward to more arrivals over the next weeks!