Friday (4/6/2018) was a good day for photography so I took my recently repaired lens and camera and headed for Fir Island and areas to the south.

My first discovery was several Red-winged blackbirds at a small wetland area.  This male thought it important to defend his territory.

One of the females remained in the wetland with some nesting material in her beak.

Next up, what is presumably a male Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race).

And a female singing…

Next… something very special to me.  This is a Dark-eyed junco (Slate-colored), the only other one I’ve seen in Skagit County outside of our yard.  As I’ve noted previously in this blog, we’ve had at least one (and usually only one) in our yard for the past eleven years.  I’m under no illusions that we’re seeing the same bird each year, but it’s really strange that we seem to have only one and that one has spent the last eleven winters with us.

On Fir Island I found this very cooperative Savannah sparrow.  It flew to a fence post in front of my car, then quickly decided to move a fence post closer and break out into song! In between songs it would turn and look me directly in the eye like it was checking its performance.

In the same general are I found this Northern shrike.  It, on the other hand, was not at all cooperative.  I probably spent over an hour patiently waiting for the bird to return to what was apparently a favorite perch, but had to settle for these photos taken from twice as far away.

I’ve saved the best for last!  This is a female Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race) who was good enough to pose for many photos.