July 27, 2026, dawned cloudy and cool and I decided to spend some time in the yard. We had very light rain for much of the previous day so I figured my water features wouldn’t be much of a draw. That was largely true… there were only the usual visitors and not even many of them except for chickadees and nuthatches.
About 1:40pm an Orange-crowned warbler suddenly appeared at the watercourse. This was welcome relief from the photography standpoint! The warbler spent a good bit of time in and around the watercourse, giving me many opportunities for photographs.
About five minutes after it left the yard a beautiful yellow warbler (appearance, not species) appeared and headed for the watercourse. The bird was so yellow I thought at first it was a female Yellow warbler (species) but the more I observed it I noticed it had a very pale ‘shadow’ cap. Putting together the bird’s features, uniform, unblemished pale yellow color and pale cap, I decided that this must be a first-year Wilson’s warbler, probably a female. What a beautiful bird! This warbler also spent significant time in and around the watercourse and I got lots of photos.
It was tempting to remain in the yard longer, but I was anxious to process my warbler photos so I decided to call it an afternoon as far as photography was concerned. Back in my office, while processing photos, some movement in the yard caught my eye. I looked down to see an accipiter, presumably a Cooper’s hawk, surveying the yard from one of my staging objects. I watched as it made its way around the yard, finally stopping at the bottom of the watercourse. I realized at this point that I might be able to get photographs/video with my iPhone from the window, but just after I began photographing it the hawk flew out of sight behind the south end of the house.
As I was putting my phone away I looked down at the yard and saw that the hawk had returned to one of my water features This time I was ready and took several minutes of video of the hawk bathing. Although I’ve had many visits from accipiters to the yard, this is the first time I can remember seeing one actually bathing. The bath went on at length. Then I realized I might be able to go downstairs and video from the kitchen window, cutting my distance by about 80%. I hurried down the stairs but by the time I reached the kitchen the hawk had finished its bath and after landing on a couple of more staging objects, it exited the yard. Now, in addition to the warbler photos, I have a substantial amount of video editing to do. But what an afternoon!
