I spent another three hours or so watching/photographing birds in the yard on the afternoon of April 6, part of that time with the same neighbor who had witnessed the arrival of our first warbler on April 3. I entered the yard about 1pm and immediately saw a male Varied thrush (no photo) in Madrone trees at the edge of the yard. It seems late for them to be lingering in the lowlands, but on a short drive up to the Cap Sante Overlook I saw three more. There seem to be more around now than in the dead of winter. The birds lose at least part of their food supply due to winter snow in the mountains and so head to lower areas free of snow.

I had no sooner begun to settle in when a male Yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warbler entered the yard and headed for the watercourse. I don’t know whether this is the same one that visited April 3 (with the same neighbor in attendance) or a new visitor. This one took a shorter bath but still gave me ample opportunity for a few photos.

We have a stone birdbath and behind it is some sort of native plant that some of the birds enjoy landing on as a staging point. For a year or so I have been interested in obtaining a photo of a bird on the plant but have been frustrated to some degree in that the deer strip the leaves from the plant from time to time. Somehow the plant survives and on this day I obtained photos of a Pine siskin clinging to the vertical stem a few inches from the bird bath.

Another long desired photo opportunity was to be able to obtain some good photos of a Rufous hummingbird feeding on one of our native Red currant plants. The initial bloom of the currants coincides with the arrival of the first migrating Rufous hummingbirds, and there was no exception at our house this year. On this day a female spent considerable time on one of our Red currants and I was able to obtain some nice photos of her activity.