On Friday, November 5th, 2021, I went out in the yard for a little birding after a morning of rain and recovery from my Moderna booster that I had gotten two days before. There were a lot of birds in the yard but mostly chickadees (Chestnut-backed and Black-capped), House sparrows and our most numerous winter species, Dark-eyed (Oregon) juncos. Our leucistic Dark-eyed junco did visit the yard later. 

I spied (and managed to photograph) a Yellow-rumped warbler flitting around the yard but it never made it down to the watercourse. 

I noticed what seemed like a first year White-crowned sparrow in the yard to the side of me, but it seemed to have unusually bold facial markings. I wanted to photograph it but it was moving away from me and was on the far side of a wire fence we use to protect a Japanese maple from the neighborhood’s deer population. I watched it for a minute or so but it moved off out of sight. 

About fifteen minutes later the same bird popped out from an evergreen huckleberry beside the watercourse and I quickly focused on it for a photo. As I did so I could clearly see the yellow lores which identified it as a White-throated sparrow, a VERY rare visitor to the yard. I managed a quick photo before the bird disappeared behind the huckleberry bush. 

About two years ago we had a White-throated sparrow living under a bush about a block up the street (V Avenue) from us and I took photos of that bird on numerous occasions.  I believe that it was that bird that came to the yard once or twice, but as far as I can remember those were our only visits until this day. 

This was a SEVEN sparrow species day. Unfortunately our Fox sparrow, which usually frequents our yard, didn’t show while I was observing. (The Fox sparrow was here the following day but the White-throated and White-crowned sparrows were not.)

Here are some of the photos of the sparrows I took…

Another bird of note, a young Brown creeper which visited three different  bird baths. 

Several weeks ago I observed our first Common loon of the season in the Cap Sante Marina. It still had most of its breeding plumage. It seemed to disappear for a week or so, but when I drove by the marina on the morning of October 27, 2021, the loon was preening and west located not far from shore. It had morphed into its winter plumage but I rushed home, retrieved my camera and rushed back to the marina. The loon was still there and still preening! I took the following photos:

October 24, 202, brought a windstorm which continued into the next day. On October 25 I had no hope for birding but on returning from an errand in the early afternoon I noticed the yard was full of birds. Once inside I realized that there was a Yellow-rumped warbler around the watercourse, so I grabbed my camera and transitioned to the yard. I was soon overrun with Yellow-rumped warblers, all of which seemed to be juveniles or females. I estimate that for the next couple of hours there were as many as ten Yellow-rumped warblers in the yard at one time! I thought it was somewhat unusual in that we had a relatively high wind which usually discourages bird activity in the yard. I managed a LOT of photos of the warblers… here are some examples…

During my time in the yard I saw a male Varied thrush sneaking around the perimeter of the yard but it never came in close enough for a good photo. The thrushes have been very cautious this fall and I have yet to get a really good photo one.

Also sneaking in to the watercourse among all the Yellow-rumped warblers was an Orange-crowned warbler… with all the warblers I felt lucky to have seen it and gotten photos.

Finally, our leucistic Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco reappeared after an apparent absence of several days.

I made short birding excursions around the Cap Sante neighborhood on both October 18 & 19, 2021. On both days I found a large number of juvenile Yellow-rumped warblers around one of the parking lots at the Cap Sante Marina and was able to get many photos. This concentration has been assembling at the same location each fall for several years now.  

While photographing the warblers a male Ruby-crowned kinglet wandered past and I managed several photos.  

I have been monitoring some of the madrone trees in the neighborhood for birds eating the ripe berries, but thus far there have not seen large numbers of birds in the trees. 

On 10/19 I found three different species of warblers in the Cap Sante wetland but could only get a decent photo of an Orange-crowned warbler.  I also saw a Townsend’s warbler, a species which usually visits our yard only about once each year… and we’ve already had our visit for the year earlier!  I also saw two additional  Yellow-rumped warblers. 

On October 16, 2021, we were entertaining out of state guests when I got an opportunity for a little yard break. It was a good day for photography with an overcast that dispersed the light. I spent just over an hour in the yard, took 74 photos, discarded 29 and retained 46. (I note that I’ve retained over 7,000 photos of birds taken in our yard year to date.)

Here are a few highlights of my time in the yard on this afternoon…

I had about four visits from one or more Golden-crowned kinglets, but none descended from relatively high in the trees to present an opportunity for photographs. We had a single visit from a Ruby-crowned kinglet but it too remained too active and distant for photographs.

My first opportunity for photographs involved a male House finch…

A Brown creeper, one of my favorite birds, was the first of a somewhat rarer species that arrived in the yard. The creeper(s) almost all follow the same path out of the yard… the draw to the yard seems to be a bath in a shallow bird feature cut out of a single block of rock. In this photo the creeper has bathed and is on its way out of the yard via a madrone tree immediately adjacent to the bath.

We have only one Song sparrow in the yard and that may be it for the winter. They are not gregarious birds so we don’t expect more than a couple.

Our Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco population in the yard has grown to about ten, but in another month or so that population may double. The juncos will be our most numerous species for the duration of the winter.

Our rarest visitor for the day was a Yellow-rumped warbler. Owing to the subtle amount of yellow on the bird I suspect it is a juvenile. I had several visits from the species on this day and one visited the watercourse and attendant staging objects, providing me with good opportunities for photos.

Just before I retired for the day a female Northern flicker entered the yard to access the suet feeder.