I’m going to try to summarize the spring migration that has occurred in our yard over the past few weeks.  

In general, the main migration seemed to begin in late April, with large numbers of migrants appearing on April 29 & 30.  With regard to warblers, Orange-crowned, Wilson’s and Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s race) provided the greatest numbers of visits. 

This is a male Yellow-rumped warbler, Audubon’s race.

This year, for I believe the first time, we had visits by the Myrtle race of Yellow-rumped warblers.  This first photo is of a female, the second photo is of a male.

There were several days of rain or cold when I didn’t spend much time in the yard and we didn’t seem to have that many visits.  But we then had two more days (May 4 & 5) of high migrant traffic. 

This season, in addition to the warblers listed above, we had confirmed/photographed visits from: 

• Townsend’s warbler (1 visit) 

• Black-throated gray warbler (1 visit)
• Pacific Slope flycatcher (2 days) 

• Warbling vireo (2 days) 

• Brown-headed cowbird (female; late arrival but now a daily visitor)
• Western tanager (male & female) 

• Black-headed grosbeak (male & female) 

• House wren (nesting) 

We thought we might have seen a MacGillivray’s warbler (twice) and female Yellow warbler (twice), but we couldn’t be sure of the identifications or obtain photographs.  

To bring things up to date, as of May 22 we seem to be getting only about one warbler visit per day.  The House wren that was in one of our nest boxes apparently fledged young. 

A pair of Red-breasted nuthatches raised a family of four young in the vicinity and the parents have been feeding them suet in the yard.  About a week ago one of the young ones landed on the lens of my camera, only about five inches from the front of my face, while I was photographing birds in the yard.  We have Black-capped chickadees currently occupying a nest box.  Another pair were discouraged from using a different nest box by a persistent male House sparrow that was unable to enter the box but was threatening to the nest-building process.  

Whew! I’m going to consider myself caught up and not visit the migration again!

I spent over four hours in the yard ready to photograph birds on Memorial Day. I took some nice photos of some of the usual yard birds.

I began the day photographing a female Bushtit which, uncharacteristically, made several efforts to take a bath in the watercourse. It kept being deterred by other larger birds, and while waiting it decided to take a “leaf bath” in an evergreen huckleberry that I had sprayed. This gave me lots of opportunities for photos of a bird that can be difficult to photograph. I use the term ‘uncharacteristically’ because only in the last week have either of our pair of Bushtits shown ANY interest in water, either for drinking or bathing.

My next interest was a juvenile White-crowned sparrow. It took two or three baths, again giving me ample opportunity for photos.

By this time I had spent about three and a half hours in the yard with not much to show for my time or efforts. That all changed just before 3:30pm when a Wilson’s warbler entered the yard. This has probably been our most common warbler during the spring migration but lately we have only been averaging about one warbler per day, so this was a welcome visitor.

The warbler had barely left the yard when I spotted an orange head in our Golden Chain tree (now no longer blooming) and I quickly prepared for the possible entry of a male Western tanager. I wasn’t disappointed. The bird first flew to a small Japanese maple and landed only about six feet from me! It then few back to a staging stick by the watercourse and I began trying to photograph it. I would lose track of the bird when switching between my viewfinder and looking over the top of the camera and kept being puzzled by the bird’s location. I then realized that there were TWO males around the watercourse!

While trying to photograph the males a female appeared at the head of the watercourse, and then I had a real delimma! I wanted photos of both sexes, so I then began to concentrate on the female.

The tanagers had barely left the yard when I noticed a Black-headed grosbeak sneaking a drink from a small hanging bird bath among some leaves. I began taking photos of it when I realized that there was a second male grosbeak in our hanging platform feeder!

Immediately after the grosbeaks left either another Wilson’s warbler entered the yard or the previous one returned. All of the action with the Wilson’s warbler(s), the tanagers and the grosbeaks happened in a 15-minute periods but it cost me over four hours of my time… and that doesn’t include processing and writing this blog!

One afternoon a couple of weeks ago I was sitting outside occupied with photographing spring migrants.  I use a chair that is erect and a monopod to hold my camera so that I look directly over the camera/lens to observe activity in the yard.  If I want to photograph a bird very little motion is required to drop my eye to my viewfinder to compose photos.  I was in such a position when a Red-breasted nuthatch landed just in front of my camera, on my lens, and proceeded to waltz to the far end of the lens while I watched with my face only inches away.  Unfortunately there was no opportunity for a photograph!  (A week later we had a family (four fledglings) frequenting one of our suet feeders and I presume it was one of the young that had landed on my lens.)

On May 19, 2020, I was in the house when motion outside caught my attention.  I thought I had seen a rather large gray bird fly into a grove of fir trees at the edge of the yard and there was some activity by crows, so I thought that we might have another visit from a Great Horned owl which had been here a couple of weeks previously.  I went outside and looked through the fir trees but the crows had dispersed and I couldn’t locate anything of interest.  

That evening I was washing dinner dishes and looked out one of the kitchen windows to see a large accipiter sitting rather low to the ground adjacent to our brush pile.  I grabbed my camera and tried to sneak into position to get a photo using the loud disturbance of a passing car to help distract from my movements, but my tactics didn’t work and the accipiter flew quickly into the same grove of fir trees into which it had disappeared earlier in the day.  I could hear our pair of California quail vocalizing from the safety of our brush pile.  (Incidentally, the brush pile is ‘engineered’ with welded livestock wire for just such purposes.)  

So now, with migration falling off, we (and the birds) have to contend with a very efficient predator in the yard.  My postings may suffer!  

And now a note pertaining to site administration,,, 

In the past visitors have been able to sign up on the site to receive emails when I post a new blog.   I have no idea how many visitors have signed up for this service, but recently I had some trouble loading images on my site and contacted tech support for the host.  Tech support disabled several features on my site which I don’t think had anything to do with the image problem. When I discovered that the notification app had been inactivated, I reactivated it but am unsure whether or not my distribution list was retained.  So subscribers may not be getting updates to my site.  

In a somewhat related problem, two friends who subscribed to my blog indicated that they had sent comments concerning posts.  I was puzzled because I hadn’t seen their comments.  In questioning one of the subscribers I discovered that the comments had been sent in a reply to the email notifications, and I don’t receive those replies!  So I have no idea how many people may have sent comments regarding my blog that I would have acknowledged had I received them.  

I try to acknowledge almost all meaningful emails I receive.  If you want to communicate with me the best way is to use my personal email address.  If you don’t know my email address leave a message on my site and I’ll contact you.  But don’t respond to email notification of a new blog post and expect me to see it!  

I apologize for all these difficulties but my interest, and any expertise I have, is directed at observing and photographing birds and offering associated products to the greater birding community.  I produce a web site at my expense that is free of advertising.  All of my knowledge concerning software pertaining to my blog is self-taught, and I prefer to spend my time posting bird photos and observations (which in itself is extremely time-consuming) rather than learning the technical intricacies of web design and maintenance.   

I wouldn’t want you to go without a photo, so here is a photo of female Rufous hummingbird showing interest in an evergreen huckleberry bush…

Skagit Wild Bird Supply on Memorial Highway in Mount Vernon has been providing those of us who feed birds with quality seed and birding products for many years.  Several friends have asked me recently if the store is open during the COVID-19 crisis.

The good news is that the store is open and you can still purchase bird seed and supplies there.  I recently purchased bird seed from the store and found that they have implemented some of the best procedures I have found in local businesses during the COVID-19 crisis.  The store only allows entry to employees.  You can call ahead with orders or call from their parking lot (360 424-5575) and the store will deliver the order to your vehicle.  At this time the hours are limited to Wednesday through Saturday from 10am until  3pm.  Payment is limited to credit and debit cards. 

The bird pictured above? A female Western tanager.

First a little administrative news. In the past few weeks it has gotten much more difficult to upload photos to my website (BlueHost). I contacted technical support a few days ago and they made some changes they thought would help, including disabling some ‘plugins”. I assumed this meant plugins they use administratively, but they might have meant plugins I use. One the plugins I use distributes copes of new posts to subscribers. If you are a subscriber and stopped getting emails of new posts let me know and I’ll try to get the feature up and running again.

The two days I had of extraordinary bird sightings (see prior posts) are apparently history.

As of May 8 things have settled down to much too normal conditions for the past few days. I had hoped to have return visits from some of the rarities (flycatcher, tanager, etc.) but those visitors apparently just passed through, deciding not to take advantage of our superior habitat. But that hasn’t kept me from spending significant time in the yard.

Yesterday (May 8, 2020) was a beautiful day, warm and with full sun. I was hopeful that a change in the weather might spur visitors but was somewhat disappointed. I say ‘somewhat’ because as I was preparing to enter the yard I looked out the window and saw what I assumed was an Orange-crowned warbler flying around the watercourse. I realized that the behavior wasn’t right (one of the assets of more experienced birders!) and looked closer. It was a Warbling vireo, a very rare visitor to the yard although we have had one on one or two other occasions.

I grabbed my camera and headed to the yard. I managed a couple of photos and knew they weren’t going to be good ones, but was confident they would give me a more positive identification and record of the bird’s visit.

I was now committed to waiting for the vireo’s return! I had a long time to wait… over two hours, but I weds finally rewarded with the bird’s second appearance. This time I managed a better photo.

In between activity generated by special visitors I spend my time taking what I hope will be good photos of some of the more common visitors. This male House sparrow is a much too common visitor. I have recently been overrun with House sparrows after having had them all but disappear a few weeks ago.

I never saw this next special visitor ent4er the yard. I looked up and saw a male Audubon’s Yellow-rumped warbler sitting above the watercourse. It never tried to access the water but gave me ample opportunity to get several nice photos.

I made mention in a prior post of a pale Red-breasted nuthatch visitor. It was back again on this day. In processing the photo I noticed that the water had a distinct yellow tinge and was wondering if the sun had somehow caused the coloration. Then I realized that it was the blooming Golden Chain tree behind the watercourse that was the cause.

Here’s a photo of the Golden Chain tree with a male American goldfinch. I can’t begin to express my frustration at being unable to track yellow birds (primarily warblers and goldfinches) into, out of and around this tree! I’m assuming you can see the problem!

Just when I had about given up hope of seeing any warblers, at about 5pm a male Wilson’s warbler made an appearance and availed itself of a bath. I obtained a lot of photos.

This male House finch posed with a backdrop of the Golden Chain tree.

A female Northern flicker stopped by for a little suet. She wouldn’t present a full body shot but I was able to squeeze out a head shot between tree branches.

And finally, at the end of my day in the yard, a pair of quail began wandering around the yard, picking up seed that had fallen to the ground from feeders. This male California quail stands watch while the female feeds.

I was surprised to get through the day without a single sighting of an Orange-crowned warbler, but late in the day I looked out a window and saw one bathing in our stone bird bath (no photos of this event). I’m still hoping for a late arrival of a Yellow or MacGillivray’s warbler.