On of the primary staging objects in my front yard is what’s left of a madrone tree that lost the upper two-thirds of its height in a wind storm several years ago.  Despite its grievous injury the tree lives on, serving as a primary staging object for visiting birds. This season it produced an especially abundant crop of berries and I was anticipating a ripe opportunity to photograph birds enjoying its berries. Unfortunately, just as the berries ripened the birds made very quick work of the berries which I, despite daily monitoring in the yard, completely missed!  

I had guests for about three weeks in September/October and despite spending significant time in the yard I had little time for developing photos or posting to my blog. On October 17, 2026, I set up for observing and photographing birds in the yard mid-afternoon. My time in the yard was at first unpromising. The sun was out, providing too much contrast and areas that were deeply shaded, but I persevered. My first interesting visitor was what seemed like it could be a female Slate-colored Dark-eyed junco.  (I had photographed what had clearly been a male a week or so earlier.)  

This is the male I photographed on October 3, 2026.

My next interesting visitor was a Pacific wren, a very infrequent and difficult to photograph visitor.  The bird is in almost constant motion and is difficult to follow when looking through a telephoto lens. Added to the photographic difficulty are the low light conditions and the frustration of not being able to use a faster shutter speed. The bird(s) made two separate appearances in the yard and I made the most of them. In processing my photos I realized I had gotten much better photos than I expected. 

I also had a brief visit from a Ruby-crowned kinglet, a much rarer visitor than its cousin, the Golden-crowned kinglet that also visited.

A mature male Red crossbill showed up at the pedestal bird bath only about six feet away… too close for the focus on my telephoto lens. 

I remained in the yard much later than usual (5pm), hoping (in vain) for a visit from a Varied thrush that has occasionally visited the yard lately. 

I finally gave up my yard monitoring and went inside to prepare dinner.  As I was looking out the kitchen window I got a quick glimpse of what I thought could be a Hermit thrush disappearing into the bushes!  A minute or two later it reappeared and bathed in the watercourse. Desperately wanting photos of this very rare visitor, I grabbed my camera and photographed the bird through the glass in the kitchen window.  The resulting photos were severely degraded due to the extra intervening glass, the fading light and the bird being wet… but at least I had gotten a record photo.

As I watched to see if the thrush would reappear I saw a Varied thrush at my stone bird bath… too far away for a quality photograph in the fading light. 

Finally, since I had gotten some good photographs of a Song sparrow, I’ll just toss them in as well.

A few sunny days interrupted my interest in migrants and photography, but when foggy weather returned I returned to the yard on October 6, 2026.

Yellow-rumped warblers continued to visit although the frequency of their visits from several days ago were greatly diminished.

I also had continuing visits from Red crossbills but their visits were also greatly reduced.

Four raccoons passed through the yard while I was photographing birds.

A single Townsend’s chipmunk, which has now been a daily visitor for the past couple of weeks, spent a long time in one of my madrone trees eating berries which are now ripening.

For many years the yard was bereft of Hairy woodpeckers, but for the last year or so they occasionally visit the bird baths, peanut and suet feeders. This is the female… I haven’t seen a male in at least several weeks.

This male Spotted towhee has been a regular visitor to the yard for at least two years. It has a severely malformed (crossed) beak which I assumed would hinder it from eating seeds, but its beak apparently is not a handicap. It can easily break down a peanut kernel into smaller pieces to eat.

And my “Visitor of the Day” was this Red-breasted sapsucker that very briefly passed through the yard. Unfortunately it was chased out of the yard by some other unidentified bird before I could get a good photo. If you can find one of these “working” a tree it’s usually a photographic gold mine. The sapsucker will drill a series of horizontal holes in a tree which over time will secrete sap. The sapsucker will then return repeatedly for the sap and the insects the sap collects, giving a patient photographer time to set up and take multiple photographs.

This photo is what I term a “record” photo. It’s good enough to identify the bird and add it to the photographic record but not good enough for publication.

While the numbers of my interesting fall visitors seems to have dwindled the run keeps getting extended. On October 3, 2026, it became obvious that the sun would be out and my opportunity for quality photographs would end. However for a short time just after noon I decided I would give things a try based on my success of the past few days. I hadn’t been out long before I noticed a perfectly posed Dark-eyed junco on one of my staging sticks. As I was photographing it I realized this wasn’t one of the yard-prolific Oregon subspecies, but a Slate-colored subspecies! The Slate-colored subspecies is apparently the most numerous/widely distributed subspecies of the Dark-eyed junco in North America, but it is a rarity in my yard.

Here, for comparison, is a male Oregon subspecies. This subspecies will soon be one of the most numerous species of birds in my yard for the winter with the possible exception of House sparrows or an influx of Pine siskins.

I haven’t seen the Slate-colored junco since my original sighting.

I was very impressed with the avian visitors I had the previous day (see prior post) and decided to see if the deluge would continue the next day. October 2, 2026, was another cool, cloudy day with conditions perfect for photography.

I again had a large number of Red crossbills visit…

and Yellow-rumped warblers.

I also had a visit from a Ruby-crowned kinglet (much rarer in my yard than the Golden-crowned kinglets).

For the past couple of weeks I’ve had welcome visits from a Townsend’s chipmunk which often provides a diversion when no interesting birds are present.

While Brown creepers visit the yard several times a day, they usually frequent a stone bird bath that is at the outer range of what I prefer for good images. On this day the stone bird bath was crowded and the creeper made a brief excursion to the watercourse, roughly halving the distance at which I can normally get a photo.

I would have been happy with what I had gotten thus far, but I had a VERY rare and interesting visitor… and it was kind enough to allow me many photos. This is a Black-throated Gray warbler, and there is no way I can convey how happy I was that it made an appearance! It’s moments and visits like these that make my hobby of birding photography so rewarding/1

The sun was out October 3rd & 4th, putting a temporary end to my birding photography.

At some point on returning from my Thursday morning, coffee meetings just after noon on October 1, 2026, I remembered I had seen a notation on my phone calendar the previous day about the beginning of migration for Yellow-rumped warblers. As I pulled into the driveway, I noted two Yellow-rumped warblers flying around the water course. Fifteen to twenty minutes later I looked out the kitchen window and again saw two Yellow-rumped warblers in the yard. This inspired me to get my camera and position myself in the yard for some photography of species I don’t get to photograph very often.

I wasn’t disappointed! I sat in the yard for almost exactly 2 hours and during that time I had many visits from both Yellow-rumped warblers and Red crossbills. The warblers were almost continuously present. 

By the end of my two hour observation. I had taken 289 photographs, most of which were of  Yellow-rumped warblers and Red crossbills. Many of the photos were very good and I considered it a very productive afternoon.

Here are some of the images I obtained. 

In addition I had both a Bewick’s wren and a Pacific wren, the latter of which is rather rare in my yard.