For a little over a week now I’ve been getting a trickle of fall migrants. The fall migration through my yard is never as abundant as the spring migration, but it’s nevertheless interesting because it breaks the relative boredom of summer. I’m also still getting significant numbers of juvenile birds which can make my assignment of sex to my photos difficult as the juveniles of some species can appear to be adult females.
This post was spurred by two sightings of two or more male Townsend’s warblers on August 16, 2025. The first sighting occurred at 1:30pm and the second at 5:40pm. Although both sightings were males, I have no way of knowing whether or not it was the same bird. Since I usually only get about one or two sighting of this species each year, to get two sightings, both with photos, on the same day, was significant.
Since late July, and up until just a few days ago, I’ve had dayly visits from Black-headed grosbeaks that I suspect are juveniles. Adults were notably absent during the breeding season.
The migration seemed to really get underway on August 2 when I had multiple visits from one or more Wilson’s warblers.
On August 3 I had a visit from a MacGillivray’s warbler. This bird is so rare in my yard that I’ve only had two or three recorded visits in the 17 years I’ve lived here. Fortunately, I was outside with my camera for the bird’s visit and it spent significant time around the watercourse!
On August 10 I had a visit from a female Western tanager. They are generally around all summer but are rare visitors to my yard.
August 12 brought a visit from another Wilson’s warbler and a photo that I’ll probably add to my framed canvass prints! (It isn’t either of these images.) On the same day I had visit from a camera-shy Orange-crowned warbler that I was ;unable to photograph.
A complication was introduced to my photography efforts on August 14 when an accipiter, almost certainly a Cooper’s hawk, flew into trees on the outskirts of the yard and remained there for an unusual amount of time. I obtained a couple of “record” photographs but nothing worth posting.