I had an interesting day birding on Monday, December 23, 2024, which I’ll relate below, but on the previous day I had a somewhat unusual visitor… a Yellow-rumped warbler, a female or juvenile. It spent several minutes in the yard and I was able to get several good photos. 

I spent at least a couple of pleasant hours in the yard Monday afternoon (overcast with no wind and 51 degrees) and had many avian visitors. None were unusual but some of the diets I witnessed were. Much of my time was spent watching an Orange-crowned warbler feed in a denuded Golden Chain tree. One might assume that it was plucking insects from the dried seed pods, but the warbler also visited the suet feeder and the platform feeder with hulled sunflower seeds, so I don’t know that it wasn’t eating the seeds in the Golden Chain tree. I clearly saw it consuming a sunflower seed!  It might be transitioning from an insectivore to an omnivore… evolution right before my very eyes!  

I also had at least three visits from a Bewick’s wren (while it was waiting for a name change… a little birding humor!). It was in the yard to scrounge suet fallen from the suet feeder, but wasn’t beneath accessing the source. 

I had an uncharacteristically brief visit from a Brown creeper, usually a regular visitor but one I hadn’t seen recently. 

I had visits from both species of kinglets, the Ruby-crowned kinglet and the Golden-crowned kinglet. Oddly enough, on this day the Ruby-crowned kinglet was the more frequent and photogenic visitor. 

I had several visits from bands of Bushtits and both male and female Anna’s hummingbirds. 

Here are a couple of photos of Golden-crowned sparrows, winter mainstays in the yard. 

Merry Christmas and a safe, prosperous and happy new year!

On the afternoon of December 4, 2024, I spent an hour or so in the yard observing and photographing birds. Perhaps the most interesting of my observations involved the Orange-crowned warbler that has been visiting the yard for several days, feeding from both the suet and peanut feeders and this day even visiting the platform feeder holding sunflower seed. 

I had six species of sparrows: Spotted towhees, Dark-eyed. (Oregon) juncos and House, Golden-crowned, a Song and a Fox sparrows. The juncos were by far the most numerous birds in the yard.  With the inclusion of White-crowned sparrows and White-throated sparrows seen earlier in the year, that brings the total number of sparrows seen in the yard for the year to eight.  

I had both species of kinglets, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned. Until recently the latter has been a rare visitor but this day I had two visits and I think one of the visits was by a pair. 

Two species of wrens, Bewick’s and Pacific, very briefly visited the yard but I was unable to get photos of either. 

At least two male Anna’s hummingbirds are visiting the yard. I have no way of determining if these two photos are of the same hummingbird,

I had multiple visits from one or more flocks of Bushtits. This one is a female but for what is probably a first in my Bushtit photography, I was able to photograph a male and female together.

Very late in the afternoon of the previous day (12/3/20214) I had a male Varied thrush feeding in the yard but there was no sign of the bird today. I thought the snow in the mountains would bring more of the thrushes down to the yard, but it hasn’t happened yet. 

On November 7, 2024, I managed to eke out a little time for birding, something I hadn’t had time to do for almost a week due to other activities and weather. 

My afternoon began rather slowly with much the same birds in the yard although things seemed a little slower than normal. I had visits from both male and female Anna’s hummingbirds who will apparently remain with us for the winter. I didn’t have to wait too long for a visit from a Golden-crowned kinglet, and there was a very brief visit from a Brown creeper.  Golden-crowned sparrows seem to come and go but don’t seem to be in open areas as much, perhaps for good reason!  

After a while a Pacific wren emerged from behind my stone birdbath. This is a very small active bird that frequents low areas with brush and ferns and is very difficult to photograph. The wren disappeared for a minute or two and then reappeared at a much nearer birdbath and gave me the opportunity for many photographs. Unfortunately, the location in the birdbath where it chose to bathe was exactly behind a single fir needle sticking up at the edge of the bird bath, which ruined many of my photos. However, I was afforded many photographs of the bird and may have gotten some of my best photos of this species. 

As I saw watching the birds in the yard, I was aware of the sudden appearance of an adult accipiter (probably a Cooper’s hawk) on the top of my garden fence.  I watched as it made its way through fir trees to a large patch of Snowberry bushes. I was hoping to get a good view of the bird for a photo when it popped out onto a perch directly above my stone birdbath. At that point, I was able to take a good many photographs of the bird and noted that it was banded. 

I have the name of a person in Seattle who bands raptors and I plan to contact him to see if he can give me any information on the bird.  Many years previously I was able to obtain rather extensive information on a young Cooper’s Hawk that had been banded in the nest in Seattle, fledged and showed up at SeaTac airport, was trapped and removed and was relocated to the Samish Flats area before making its way to my yard! 

Just to fill things out, here are a couple of Song sparrow images…

On October 17, 2024, I had a relatively brief window of time to spend in the yard in the late afternoon and, seeing some intermittent bird activity in the yard from my office, I retrieved my camera and relocated to the yard. There was’t much of interest when I arrived but after some time my attention was drawn to activity on a snag I had “planted” at the edge of the yard. Sitting on that snag was a female Varied thrush, the first for our fall/winter season! I managed to take a few photos before the bird descended into the yard, but it was initially behind some bushes that obscured my vision.

After about ten minutes the bird emerged at my stone bird bath for some water where I was able to obtain a couple of additional photos.

We usually have had a few Varied thrushes hang around the yard the entire winter, but last year they only made rare appearances. They are beautiful birds.. I’m hoping for more this coming season..

Not long after one of the thrush’s visits a Ruby-crowned kinglet flew into the Japanese maple immediately adjacent to me… too close for photos! It quickly disappeared but it, or another, returned a short time later for a bath in a location more conducive for photographs. Unfortunately the bird’s frenetic movement didn’t afford me the opportunity for any but this most basic photo, as you see here.

Both of these birds are winter visitors. The thrushes come down from the mountains in the winter in search of a more reliable food supply. I see, on rare occasions, a Ruby-crowned kinglet but the Golden-crowned kinglets (see prior post) are much more frequent visitors.

Late in the morning of October 12, 2024, I arrived at the Bayview State Park to photograph birds I had seen eating hawthorn berries the previous day. There were a few birds entering the tree, but for the most part they remained in the canopy where I couldn’t photograph them. The squirrels were more cooperative. I spent a couple of relatively frustrating hours at the park before giving up and returning home.

Late in the afternoon I decided to try my luck in my yard. Things in the yard weren’t especially encouraging when suddenly an Orange-crowned warbler appeared and accessed two of my water features. l got a lot of good photos! This photo might be one of the best of an Orange-crowned warbler I’ve ever taken, and I have several more of the same bird of similar quality.

It wasn’t long after before a Golden-crowned kinglet appeared and gave me some good opportunities for photographs.

Next up was a Brown creeper, a daily visitor as of late.

In fading light I photographed this White-crowned sparrow, probably born this year and raised in the area. It’s possible, but I regard as improbable, that this bird is an adult but a tan morph of the species. A photo of an adult, taken earlier in the same afternoon and at the same water feature, appears below it for comparison.

So far this fall I’ve had seven species of sparrows in the yard:

• Spotted towhee
• Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco
• House sparrow
• Song sparrow
• White-crowned sparrow
• Golden-crowned sparrow
• Fox sparrow

Dorothy was right… “There’s no place like home“!