On May 12, 2024, we had our first really warm day and about our fourth cloudless day in a row, complicating my birding photography. We were expecting the arrival of guests in the afternoon but I managed to spend some time in the yard during the late morning. I was encouraged by three sightings of a male Wilson’s warbler within a period of about 20-30 minutes but when no other migrants arrived I decided the sightings were probably of the same bird.  And disappointingly, the bird never accessed a water feature and I was unable to obtain a photograph of it. 

I managed another yard session late in the afternoon and was very surprised when a Warbling vireo landed on one of my staging sticks directly in front of me!  This is a species that visits the yard only once every few years!  My motion in attempting to swivel my camera in its direction frightened the bird and it flew without me being able to obtain a photo!  I was zero for two on the day for migrants!  

I was able to obtain photos of a Golden-crowned kinglet repeatedly accessing one of our water features.  

And while I’m on the subject of golden crowns, I was astounded when a Golden-crowned sparrow appeared in the yard. I thought that our last of about a dozen had left about a week before, but we clearly had a lingerer!  

One of my most interesting observations during this and the previous day was the sighting of one of the small Pacific Tree frogs that has made its home among the rocks of our watercourse. The frog is slightly smaller than my thumbnail but is capable of emitting extremely loud vocalizations!  I was able to photograph the frog as it inflated a sac under its chin and emitted loud croaks. 

This afternoon I watched as one of the frogs laboriously hopped across open ground from our water course to a static water feature about five feet away. I watched through my telephoto lens as the frog made its journey, but the frog’s features didn’t look right. As it neared the second water feature I realized I was seeing one frog on top of another… I don’t think they were playing “leap frog”!  I then watched as the frogs independently made their way back to the watercourse. 

It had been an interesting day for observations but a disappointing day for photography. 

While all of us probably welcome the sunshine and warmer weather, it’s not conducive for bird photography! The contrast between shadows and bright light makes it much more difficult to obtain good photographs. As a photographer f must deal with brightness, shadows, back- lighting, glare and reflections and adjust my camera settings accordingly. It doesn’t help that we have a Golden Chain tree that is now in full bloom which not only hides the birds from view (especially warblers and goldfinches) but also reflects off the surface of our watercourse and any wet surfaces. The birds’ activity means the camera settings must be constantly adjusted as the birds move among different lighting situations.

Added to these problems with the actual photography is the fact that we are not seeing nearly as many spring migrants as in past years. This reduces the opportunities for photographing some of our more interesting and colorful birds. My own observations of migrating birds, applied to our own yard in the Cap Sante neighborhood are, in a word, alarming!

For most of the days in the past couple of weeks I have spent three to four hours in the yard waiting to photograph migrants. On most of those days I only have photographs of an Orange-crowned warbler or two to show for it, and even when one enters the yard I don’t always get the opportunity to photograph it! Where are all the migrants that should, judging by this period in past years, be coming through?

Despite so many things working against me there are some successes. I’m probably averaging about 120 photos a day and although I would like to be taking photos of many other species I am, on occasion, getting some very good photos… some of which I’ll display below.

So here is a selection of some of the better photographs I’ve taken in the past few days,,,

A male Golden-crowned kinglet. This species is usually more of a winter resident than a spring/summer resident.

This Red-breasted nuthatch is usually difficult to photograph because of its activity level and the fact that it usually frequents a water feature that is out of good photographic range. (Note the aforementioned Golden Chain Tree in the background.)

This Bewick’s wren has been enjoying our inverted suet feeder for the past couple of months.

This male Wilson’s warbler is only one of two I’ve seen this season. In past years I’ve considered it our most common warbler.

A male Anna’s hummingbird taking a bath in the watercourse…

A male House finch…

And finally, a female Bushtit. This is probably the second best Bushtit photo I’ve ever taken! (The best was taken less than one second before the one shown here!)

My last post chronicled the flood of migrants we had on April 24, 2024. I was hoping that would open the migration floodgates, but sightings of migrants since that time have been rather paltry. I did have a few migrants come through on April 30, 2024, and it’s photos from that day you’ll see in this post.

I first want to mention a sighting of a Swainson’s thrush, seen bathing in one of our water features on April 27. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to obtain a photo of it.

This is the only Yellow-rumped warbler (a male) I’ve seen since April 24…

This was our first, and so far only, Wilson’s warbler seen to date. I’ve long considered this the most common warbler migrant passing through our yard, so I’m expecting more. This is a male…

So far this year this is our most common migrant, an Orange-crowned warbler, of which we’ve had several. It’s usually difficult to see the species’ orange crown, but in this case the orange crown is revealed with the bird’s bath.

The last of two male Varied thrushes finally left the yard to return to the mountains on or about April 27. I had begun to worry that it would hang on through the summer but nature finally took its course.

We seem to have now lost all but one of our Golden-crowned sparrows, of which we had at least a dozen in and around the yard this winter.

This is another bird that will soon be rare until it returns next fall… a male (you’ll have to take my word for it!) Golden-crowned kinglet.

And finally (I’ve previously warned there’s always a ‘finally’), a male California quail, a common resident year-round. There have been no signs of chicks yet but I expect them soon as the male is adopting guardian behavior.

Last year (2023) we experienced our largest spring migration in the month of May, so by the end of April of this year I was on high alert for spring migrants. I had begun having one or two sightings of Orange-crowned warblers a day by about mid-April and just a handful of Yellow-rumped warblers.  I spent considerable time in the yard with not much to show for it. 

April 24, 2024, dawned overcast with intermittent drizzle, what I consider perfect weather for photography. I was in the yard by 10am and by 11am, an hour later, I had lost count of the number of Orange-crowned warblers that had I had seen in the yard. (My estimate was somewhere in excess of 10.)  I also had a single male Yellow-rumped warbler during the same time period. 

I saw no warblers from 11am to noon and took a break, returning to the yard about 1pm. Between 1pm and 2pm I saw about four male Yellow-rumped warblers and many more Orange-crowned warblers.  

I took a long afternoon break but returned to the yard again just after 5pm after seeing another Orange-crowned warbler at one of our water features. At that point the onslaught began!  Over the next hour or so I don’t think there was ever a time without a warbler in the yard, and at times I could count as many as four of each of the two species I’ve mentioned (OCWA & YRWA) in the yard at the same time!  (Most if not all of the Yellow-rumped warblers were males and most were Audubon’s, although there were some Myrtle’s warblers as well.)  It became absolutely impossible to even estimate the number of sightings. I was continuously occupied with photographing warblers at our various water and staging features. 

There was a lull about 4:30pm and I retreated to my office to download photos from my camera (Nikon D850 with Nikon 500mm lens)  to my computer.  As I began the download in my office I glanced out the widow and saw a female Black-throated Gray warbler (BTGW) in the watercourse below me!  This is one of the rarest warblers for our yard… I never saw a single one last year!  

I ran down the stairs, grabbed my camera and tried to sneak back into the yard. I managed one really good photo of the female BTGW and several of lesser quality. While I was in the yard the onslaught continued and I managed 240 photos until I judged the light was of such quality that further photos were of no use (about 5:40pm). My take of yard photos for the day… 674, a personal record for our yard and the preponderance of which were of warblers!  

I do much of my photo processing and writing in the wee hours of the morning so as to preserve the daylight hours for bird photography. I’ll be processing the day’s photos for a long time!  

I expect that there will be another influx of warblers since I didn’t see a single Wilson’s warbler (WIWA), the warbler I consider the most common for our yard. My problem now will be how to balance processing time for my photos with time spent looking for and photographing new migrants. 

Not to be ignored, a male Rufous hummingbird…

and what is probably a male first-year Anna’s hummingbird.

Before I get to photos, we have had a couple of noteworthy events, neither of which I was able to document in photos.  The first event was the annual arrival of Turkey vultures.  We saw two sail below our house on the very windy morning of March 11, 2024, as we were eating breakfast.  

The next day (March 12) we saw our first Rufous hummingbird, a female.  This arrival is right on time as the Red currents are just beginning to bloom.  

Another significant arrival, from hibernation, occurred March 10 when I saw one of our Townsend’s chipmunks scurry across the rocks in our watercourse.  It took full advantage of me and had a nice meal of peanuts.  Last year we had as many as four in the yard at one time and when the birding was slow they provided a little diversion for my photography.  

In other birding news, I was confused about this first-year White-crowned sparrow‘s identity (photographed March 10) until another arrived the following day.  I first thought I had a leucistic bird but later thought the bird was some sort of hybrid, but when another showed up the following day I realized that the sparrows’ crowns apparently don’t morph into adult plumage as I might expect.  

This finch had so much red on it I thought it might be a Purple finch instead of the more common House finch, but I’m probably not going to be able to make a determination from the photos I obtained.  If you want to weigh in on it let me know!  

And a few other recent visitors… 

A female Anna’s hummingbird taking what had to be a very cold bath on March 11, 2024…

A Red-breasted nuthatch sampling the cold water on the same day… 

And one of our recently arrived Pine siskins…