We logged another new spring migrant in the yard today (4/1/2020)… a (male) American goldfinch! I had been anticipating this species’ arrival for at least a couple of weeks and it finally arrived early in the afternoon on this bright, sunny afternoon.

In some past years we have had goldfinches in the yard off and on all winter, but this winter they have been absent. I’ve found that in some winters they can reliably be found at Skagit Wild Bird Supply on Memorial Highway, and I have even seen them occasionally when birding in the field, so we do have some (small) portion of the population that overwinters in the area. I keep records on the arrival of some migrants but since there are often some goldfinches coming and going during winter months I can’t record a definite migration arrival date for the species every year. But we haven’t had goldfinches for several months so 2020 gets an arrival date.

It was evident that this bird had seen a feeder before. It made a couple of passes at the feeder before discovering that it had to be accessed by clinging underneath. Once it discovered that trick it set up around the feeder and accessed it repeatedly, although it didn’t appear to be in the yard continuously during the afternoon.

BONUS PHOTO! While out in the yard monitoring the goldfinch I photographed this male Downy woodpecker that is a regular visitor to one of our suet feeders. Unfortunately we have not had a female in the yard. We’re hoping this male finds a mate for the breeding season!

I spent an hour or two run the yard again today (3/28/2020), hoping for new spring migrants. None showed but I obtained some good photos of regular visitors. Here are some of the photos…

I’ve now seen almost as many hummingbird visits to the watercourse in the past week as I saw the entire last season (as I mentioned in my last post)! This is probably the same male Rufous hummingbird… he seems to be addicted to tasking baths. In this case I managed a quick shot at 1/400th of a second, far too slow to stop the wing motion but good enough to provide very good detail on the rest of the hummingbird.

The crows are pairing up and building nests. I think I’ve located the general areas for two of the nests. The crows were agitated this afternoon due to two Bald eagles overflying the area.

From an excursion outside the yard yesterday (3/26/2020)…

A Bald eagle photographed on West March Point Road…

A male Downy woodpecker intent on accessing the suet feeder in the yard…

After several years of enjoying and photographing hummingbirds accessing the watercourse, at the end of last summer I could only remember about four hummingbird visits to our watercourse during the 2019 season. Why so few I can’t imagine. However this year I’ve already observed two male Rufous hummingbird visits to the watercourse… one, as I think I may have mentioned, occurred when I was filling the watercourse and the other this afternoon. This afternoon I was in the yard with my camera and managed to record the event. The watercourse is flowing more robustly due to the larger pump I’m now using, but the hummingbird seems to have no qualms about landing in the increased flow. This hummingbird, as well as most of the other smaller birds, seem to prefer perching the edge of one of the drops for bathing purposes.

For the past several weeks my watercourse has been dry, with only a small pool at the base. My old pump quit and I installed a backup that was slightly more powerful. It apparently pushed water over the side at some point and I was losing significant water in a short period of time. I attempted some half-hearted investigation of where the problem was occurring but cold, wet weather discouraged my desultory efforts.

Knowing that the spring migrant season was approaching, I reluctantly tackled the problem last week. I never discovered where the problem(s) were occurring, but my efforts fixed the problem and the watercourse has been up and running for about a week. My first customer, fittingly enough, was a male Rufous hummingbird. The birds are showing little interest in the watercourse, which somewhat surprises me. It’s not the cold… cold water/weather has never dissuaded birds from bathing.

I’m still waiting for more spring migrants… American goldfinches, Black-headed grosbeaks, Brown-headed cowbirds and of course, WARBLERS!

For the past two days I’ve been involved in a project to photograph a rare bird to which I was alerted by a birding friend. I’ve obtained a couple of photos but nothing I care to post. In the mean time, I’ve been on a few excursions which netted me the following photos.

Sorry… I couldn’t resist!

I have friends who I have been helping with attracting and identifying birds. On March 11, 2010, I spent a little over an hour in their yard photographing some of their visitors. The best photograph I obtained was one of this male House sparrow which has apparently purloined this sprig of what appears to be thyme for nesting material.