May 6, 2022, began with a beautiful male Wilson’s warbler appearing next to the watercourse (which has now been repaired and almost completed, just in time for the migration!). Unfortunately the bird left before I was able to obtain any photos of it. A morning session in the yard provided no new migrants, but as has too often happened in the past I observed two birds with significant leg problems.

A Golden-crowned sparrow seemed to be coping with its handicap rather well, moving across the ground with little impediment. However a male American goldfinch was having difficulty landing and hanging onto a perch. I’m at a loss to understand how these leg injuries seem to be so prevalent in bird populations. While I obtained photos of these birds the photos failed to reveal the extent of their injuries.

In previous blog posts I believe I listed the number of sparrow species we had in the yard over the winter. However, in the light of a special visitor this day (May 6), I’m going to relist the species and give their current apparent status.

Spotted towhee (1-2 pair)

Dark-eyed Oregon junco (one pair)

Fox sparrow (gone)

Song sparrow (gone)

White-crowned sparrow (1-2 pair)

Golden-crowned sparrow (4-5, soon to leave)

House sparrow (too many!)

That makes SEVEN species we’ve had this year, but wait… there’s more! On May 5 I kept thinking I was getting a glimpse of a tan morph White-crowned sparrow, but every time I would see the bird it would quickly disappear back into the bushes. On May 6 I finally was able to train a pair of binoculars on the bird and saw the diagnostic (but subtle) yellow lores on the bird. This meant that it was either a White-crowned sparrow or a Savannah sparrow. Due to our habitat the odds were overwhelmingly for the former but I wanted a photograph just to be sure that a Savannah sparrow, which is a spring/summer migrant to the greater area, hadn’t just dropped out of the sky! It took me considerable time to obtain a photograph because the bird wasn’t fond of coming out into the open. However, I was determined to document the visitor and my patience and persistence finally paid off. So without further wordiness, here are photos of our EIGHTH sparrow species for the yard this year… a White-throated sparrow!

On May 3, 2022, I had several warbler visits during the day, but most occurred during the afternoon.  My observations led me to hope that I might have more migrants through the yard so I resolved the next day to spend significant time there.  I wasn’t disappointed! 

My first migratory visitors were a pair of Yellow-rumped (Audubon) warblers.  They didn’t stay very long and I was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t get photos of the female. 

It wasn’t long before I began to lose track of the numbers of sightings, but over the course of the afternoon I estimated that I had at least three visits from Orange-crowned warblers,

at least three visits from male Wilson’s warblers

and a possible visit from a Nashville warbler, which had I confirmed it, would have been my first sighting of one in the yard.  I only got a brief glimpse of the bird but noted that it had a light gray hood which contrasted with the rest of the bird. At any rate, it wasn’t one of the other warblers that I had seen that day.  This brought the total number of warbler species for the day to four!  The migration is on!  

With an overcast it was a good day for photography and I also managed to obtain good photographs of several other birds in the yard.  

In addition I heard what might have been Black-headed grosbeaks in the surrounding area.  In past years I logged initial sightings between 4/30 and 5/17 with more recent years skewing towards earlier dates. But those dates would have been past the dates I first heard them in the neighborhood. 

I was interested in continuing this observation streak the next day (Thursday, May 5), but unfortunately it rained to some extent for most of the day, ruling out photography and perhaps affecting the migration. At any rate it affected my opportunities for yard observations even though I attempted to monitor things from the windows from time to time. 

Weatherwise, Spring seems to be making a rather late arrival this year! Cooler, wetter temperatures haven’t done my yard birding any good. My watercourse has been more or less out of commission since April 8 when I had my liner replaced. It leaked and I am only now (early May) seemingly getting close to having it up and running again.

My past records would indicate that May is when I have the greatest and most diverse influx of warblers and other spring migrants, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be seeing more diversity as the month progresses.

In the meantime I’ve been occupying some of my time photographing Ospreys in the Port area. It requires a lot of patience at this point as there are long lulls of inactivity.

While observing the Ospreys a couple of days ago a small flock of Yellow-rumped (Audubon) warblers arrived and were flitting through conifers across the parking lot from me, affording fleeting opportunities for photographs. My attention was temporarily diverted from the Ospreys to the warblers and I missed some of the Osprey action.

Meanwhile, back at the yard I’m up to at least three male American goldfinches in the yard at one time. They’ll become much more difficult to count as more arrive and our Golden Chain tree comes into full bloom.

Female goldfinches have been rather scarce thus far.

And hopefully as a sign of things to come, on April 29 I had an Orange-crowned warbler briefly visit the yard.

On the morning of April 25, 2022, as is my habit on the way back home from my morning walk, I drove by the Cap Sante Marina to see if there were any waterfowl or shorebirds in evidence. A single Common loon was “sleeping’ on the water! I rushed home, retrieved my camera and returned to the marina to find the loon in the same location, still “sleeping”. I use quotation marks around the sleeping because even though inactive, the loons seem to always have at least one eye open.

I watched the loon for a long time… maybe half an hour and it never lifted its head. It finally began cruising and I was able to obtain some good photos. This loon is still morphing into its breeding plumage, in contrast with the one I photographed on March 29, 2022. (See my post of April 11, Marina & Yard.)

As a bonus, there was a Great Blue heron fishing in the shallow water. The lack of wind allowed me to get a nice photo with the heron’s reflection in the water.

On April 19, 2022, I was graciously made aware of the apparent construction of a nesting cavity by a pair of Northern flickers. The following day I had an opportunity to monitor the activity. 

When first arriving at the site I found a dead fir tree, about 12 inches in diameter, that had been topped about 20 feet off the ground. The tree had  two holes holes about 10-12 feet above the ground and the lower hole bore the marks of fresh excavation. Small wood chips littered the ground around the base of the tree. 

There seemed to be no activity around the site and my attention was focused getting my chair positioned and my camera adjusted for the photographic conditions. 

I was ready for monitoring and glanced up at the hole to see both the male and female clinging to the tree beside the hole!  Before I could bring my camera to bear both bids flew to the top of a power pole across the street and engaged in action that will eventually result in baby woodpeckers. The female then flew to the top of a distant tree and after a few minutes the male flew back to the tree and entered the nesting cavity. 

Thus began continuation of construction on the nesting cavity. The male would completely disappear and I would hear several minutes of muffled tapping sounds, then he would reappear several times and toss wood chips out the hole. 

I watched for 30-40 minutes, taking many photos which didn’t offer a lot of variation.  In the photos below you can see the male with a beak full of wood chips in one photo and just-tossed chips in another. The female never returned during my observations. 

There should be a lesson here for the value of retaining some vestige of dead trees!  Not only do they provide potential homesites for cavity-nesting birds, but as various insect species tunnel into the wood aiding in the natural process of decay, the parents can pluck them out to provide a tasty buffet for the young birds.