At the risk of being boring, I’m going to try to demonstrate a little advice on birding photography. As I’ve mentioned in many previous blogs, we have a watercourse set up in our yard to attract birds. (Water will attract more species of birds than food will.) To attract birds to the watercourse, and also assist with my photography, I have set up what I might refer to as “staging objects”… sticks, rocks and bushes that ease birds’ transition to the watercourse from the ground and surrounding trees. These staging objects, meant to mimic a natural environment, are not only attractive perching places for the birds but they also give me multiple opportunities to photograph the same bird “in different environments” in that the backgrounds/settings/postures change even if the bird doesn’t.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I usually retain about 60% of the photographs I take (for many different reasons which I won’t go into here). I suspect that most photographers would probably only retain a few of the better photographs and dump the rest. But I’m going to try to illustrate my dilemma, caused in some part by my successful sculpting of the environment.

Here is where the boring aspect of this post rears its head. ALL of the following photographs, save the hummingbirds at the bottom, were taken of the same bird’s single trip to the water feature. (For the record, the bird is a Black-capped chickadee.) You can probably find a favorite among the photos, but how easily would you be able to discard ANY of the others?

This female Anna’s hummingbird may choose to spend the winter with us.

And finally (regular readers may remember there is always a “finally”), here’s a Rufous hummingbird feeding on salvia in the yard adjacent to the watercourse. I think the bird is a female but I can’t rule out that it might be a first year male. (Such is the state of my birding skills!) This bird has a long journey ahead, and it’s time to get moving!

If you’ve read my recent blog posts you’ve heard me repeatedly grouse (pun intended) about the lack of more interesting birds in the yard. Today (8/11/2019) I made some progress!

First, a male Wilson’s warbler entered the yard and, unlike my last such visitor, this one utilized several staging perches, including a madrone tree. He gave me many opportunities for photographs, two of which I’m displaying below.

Later in the afternoon I discovered a juvenile Hutton’s vireo, the second I’ve seen in the yard this summer. It was a lucky identification of this bird because there were almost a dozen Pine siskins flying around the yard as well as American goldfinches, House finches and House sparrows. (Note the downward curve at the end of the beak, something you are unlikely to note with the naked eye or even with binoculars.)

And just to fill up the post, I’m going to add a few more of the 188 photos I took in the yard today.

I spent a little time in the yard this afternoon (8/10/2019) hoping for something interesting, but it was not to be. (I did have two sightings of a Brown creeper but the bird was not close enough for a photo.) My posts have been relatively few and far between due to the lack of interesting birds in the yard. Rather than post photos of the same birds over and over I just haven’t done any posts.

I did have one very brief sighting on 8/5/2019… a male Wilson’s warbler very briefly visited the yard and I got a few photos. Unfortunately, while the bird visited two of our major water features a dead madrone leaf in each of our water features formed a poor background for photos. Here’s the best photo I obtained…

Here are a few of the photos I took today (8/10/2019)…

The next two photos are of Pine siskins and the reason I included these photos is to illustrate the difference in plumage among the species. This first photo may be of a juvenile siskin but siskins with similar coloration are in evidence for the winter. Note the relative lack of yellow coloring on the wing.

This second Pine siskin displays an unusual patch of yellow on the wing. I’ve seen others with similar patches but they are rare.

Here is what is probably a juvenile male Rufous hummingbird. The adult males left our yard for their migration several weeks ago. The Rufous hummingbirds migrate north up the west coast in the spring, but cross over the Cascades for their migration south. This bird has a long way to go and needs to get going!

This next species is an introduced species and seems to be outbreeding the native Mourning doves. I recently have had as many as six in the yard at one time. Note the black line along the base of the bird’s neck.

For at least the second summer in a row we’ve managed to retain a pair of Dark-eyed juncos. In the winter they can be one of our most numerous yard birds, but in the spring these birds leave to breed at higher elevations. A few can be found in Washington Park (where I once located a nest under a Sword fern) and on Mount Erie. This year the breeding pair successfully raised at least a pair of young, but in past years they have been parasitized by Brown-headed cowbirds.

Summer is now in full swing. We have many birds in the yard but most of them are House sparrows, American goldfinches, House finches or Pine siskins. So I thought it might be a good time for a couple of excursions.

My first excursion was to Fir Island on July 30 where, to my surprise, I found the Black phoebe, seriously out of range, still at Wylie Slew after two years or so.

My second expedition, on July 30, was to the Samish Flats and associated highlands areas. There I found Barn swallows feeding juveniles.

While photographing the Barn swallows, this single Tree swallow added itself to the mix…

While I obtained some interesting photos, I didn’t see enough interesting birds to repeat my excursions anytime soon. I’ll probably stick to the yard for the rest of the month.

I find after logging into my site this morning that things appear rather radically different. My site (BlueHost) uses WordPress software for development purposes. The framework with which I was familiar has been replaced with updated software which is not familiar to me. If you’re reading this it means that I have successfully made the transition!

After grousing about the lack of species diversity in our yard in my post of 7/22/2019, that afternoon I had a very brief visit from a warbler. Unfortunately it made only the briefest of appearances. I’m fairly sure that it was a male Wilson’s warbler, but I wasn’t able to detect a black cap on the bird’s head. Yellow warblers, the only other realistic possibility, are too rare to seriously consider. (There is no photo!)

On 7/23/2019 I had just finished removing string algae from the watercourse, refreshing bird baths and filling feeders when a pair of Cedar waxwings, our first in about a year, flew into the madrone trees on the outskirts of the yard. I quickly went inside for my camera but when I returned they had left, so sadly, again no photos!

Digressing a bit from the yard, on 7/22/2019, in my walk in Washington Park, I found a Barred owl and obtained photos with my iPhone. The owl was less than 15′ away and was being harassed by a Douglas squirrel which ventured to within about two feet of the owl. (Sorry about the quality of the image but it was taken with my iPhone!)

When I returned home that morning I had an email from a neighbor who had seen and photographed what she identified as a Saw-Whet owl on our property! I immediately went out to try to find it but was unsuccessful in doing so.

So that’s the yard news, but the reason I’m creating this post is that I had a good photography day in the yard yesterday despite the lack of interesting visitors. So here are some of the better photos I took…

I might mention that we had at least four male House finches in the yard at one time.

And now for a special friend who sometimes visits while I am monitoring the yard for bird activity…

It appears that I have successfully navigated the updated software. There are some improvements…. I just have to get used to them. It appears there is an improved way of selecting photos to post. This is my first attempt, and apparent success, at posting an image from my iPhone to my web site.