I just this last week returned from Texas with almost 1100 images taken of birds.  In past years the shear volume of photos has overwhelmed me but this year I’m going to make a concerted effort to process and post some of those photos… stay tuned.

But for the time being, I returned earlier this week to experience our own migration here in the PacNW.  I sat in the yard for about two hours on May 4, Cinco de Mayo eve (!), after my wife saw a male Wilson’s warbler (our first of the year) early in the morning and I later saw an Orange-crowned warbler.  My yard observations began very slowly due to a lack of birds, so I spent some time on minor habitat work for purposes of photographic improvement.  But as you’ll see, things picked up after awhile.

We had our first Black-headed grosbeak (a male) of the season on May 3, not ten minutes after I warned my wife to be alert for one.  My wife saw the first one on a feeder but later I saw one enter the watercourse but wasn’t able to obtain a photo.  This isn’t a great photo, but I’ll have an opportunity for more over the next few months.

Our wintering Anna’s hummingbirds are continuing to visit the yard.  This female was hovering over the watercourse prior to bathing.

I was visited by a Red-breasted nuthatch that seemed very lethargic and I was worried that it might be sick, but after observing it for awhile I decided that it was a juvenile and just not motivated to be as active as an adult.  (Note the tufts of feathers behind its head.)  It drank some water and sat by the edge of a water feature for several minutes without much movement, but then climbed to the top of this staging stick, sat there for a minute or so before flying to one of the feeders, grabbing a peanut and flying to a nearby fir tree.  I watched as it disappeared up the trunk.

The yard is visited by both species of chickadees that are common in the area.  This Chestnut-backed chickadee prefers coniferous habitat…

while this Black-capped chickadee prefers an environment with deciduous trees.  Fortunately, we have both since we live on the edge of undeveloped City parkland.

We have a family of crows who built a nest just outside the boundaries of our yard. They are regular visitors to the water features in our yard.

A pair of White-crowned sparrows arrived in our yard this spring.  Sadly, last year their breeding efforts produced a Brown-headed cowbird.  We have yet to see any cowbirds and I can only hope they arrive too late to interrupt this pair’s breeding season.

We still have a few Golden-crowned sparrows left in the yard.  At the beginning of the week we had at least four, and for the latter part of the winter we hosted at least ten, but I only saw this male on this day and it will probably be leaving any time now.

And finally, our VIP visitor of the afternoon, a male Wilson’s warbler.  This is the first day for this species’ visit and the second visit by one for the day.  It had a lengthy bath in several places in the watercourse.  Of the warblers, I consider this our most common visitor to our yard.

Friday (4/6/2018) was a good day for photography so I took my recently repaired lens and camera and headed for Fir Island and areas to the south.

My first discovery was several Red-winged blackbirds at a small wetland area.  This male thought it important to defend his territory.

One of the females remained in the wetland with some nesting material in her beak.

Next up, what is presumably a male Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race).

And a female singing…

Next… something very special to me.  This is a Dark-eyed junco (Slate-colored), the only other one I’ve seen in Skagit County outside of our yard.  As I’ve noted previously in this blog, we’ve had at least one (and usually only one) in our yard for the past eleven years.  I’m under no illusions that we’re seeing the same bird each year, but it’s really strange that we seem to have only one and that one has spent the last eleven winters with us.

On Fir Island I found this very cooperative Savannah sparrow.  It flew to a fence post in front of my car, then quickly decided to move a fence post closer and break out into song! In between songs it would turn and look me directly in the eye like it was checking its performance.

In the same general are I found this Northern shrike.  It, on the other hand, was not at all cooperative.  I probably spent over an hour patiently waiting for the bird to return to what was apparently a favorite perch, but had to settle for these photos taken from twice as far away.

I’ve saved the best for last!  This is a female Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race) who was good enough to pose for many photos.

We had another migrant first arrival on Saturday, March 31.  I saw the first Turkey vulture soar over our house.  It’s a bird with which we are very familiar due to our Texas connections.

We also had a visit today (April 1) from an accipiter, but I didn’t get a long enough view to ascertain if it was the same Cooper’s hawk that I photographed in the yard last September and published on my blog.

Meanwhile I’ve got a few more photos of yard visitors, taken within the past day or two.

I mentioned in the last blog or two that I had had trouble photographing a female Bushtit in the yard this spring, but I finally photographed one across the yard. Note the yellow eye which identifies the bird as a female.

At least one male Varied thrush is still visiting the yard and eating hulled sunflower seed that I scatter on the ground a couple of times a day.  I’m still trying to figure out why these thrushes eat seed!  I expect that the thrush will be heading to the mountains for breeding season any day now, but maybe they sense that there’s been a late snow and are waiting for a better food supply.

This is the single, prominent White-crowned sparrow that we’ve had in the yard for the past couple of weeks, and that I was having a difficult time photographing.  Last season we had a mating pair but if I’m not mistaken they only fledged a Brown-headed cowbird.

We still have over a half dozen Golden-crowned sparrows that have wintered over and haven’t left for their summer breeding grounds further north.  I’m fairly certain that it’s the most we’ve ever had.  The birds are beginning to morph into their breeding plumage and I’m showing you this photo to illustrate how pitiful they now look.  This one is apparently a male as you can see the beginning of a bright golden crown and the black lines on either side of the crown.  Just about the time they get their full breeding plumage they disappear for the summer and early fall, returning in late fall for the winter.

And finally a bit of serendipity.  I was photographing a lily in the yard when it had a quick visit from a male Rufous hummingbird.  At my lens’ magnification, only a short distance is in sharp focus.  Unless the bird is photographed broadside, usually some part of the bird is out of focus.  So even though this hummingbird was only a few inches from the lily, both couldn’t be in focus.  Since I was actually photographing the lily, the image of the hummingbird is what suffered.  But I thought it an interesting photo!

It seems like a relatively rare occasion here in the Pacific Northwest when the weather actually agrees with the calendar with regard to spring.  We’ve had a few nice spring-like days lately and they’ve generated some bird sightings.  But first…

On Monday, March 19, I received my Nikon 200-400mm lens back from the Nikon repair facility in Los Angeles.  I had been prepared for a large repair bill akin to the one I had to pay two years ago, but in this case Nikon came through and repaired the lens for free.  I had been apprehensive that I would see some unusual bird during the len’s absence but such was not the case.  So now my photography is back in action!

On March 17, we saw our first Rufous hummingbird (a male) in the yard.  I checked prior records and found that this arrival was relatively late compared to prior years.

On March 18 we spotted our first American goldfinch (a male) at one of our feeders.  While some of these birds overwinter here they usually are not in our yard during the winter season.

On March 19 our first female Rufous hummingbird showed up in the yard and I managed to get a photo of the actual bird.  The bird disappeared and wasn’t seen the next day, but by March 21 it (or a relative) was back and seemed to be settling into the yard.  (This is the actual sighting of the first female Rufous hummingbird in the yard, which happened to arrive while I was monitoring the yard with my newly-repaired lens!)

We’ve had at least 2-3 Anna’s hummingbirds spend the winter with us, including at least one female.  This male is accessing the water feature.

Also on March 21 we had a White-crowned sparrow show up in the yard.  We had one that lingered into the fall but it was gone 2-3 months ago.  Some are in the area year-round but they don’t overwinter in our yard.

The flocks of Bushtits that have frequented the yard have now broken up into breeding pairs, and at least one pair is returning to our suet feeder rather frequently.  (This is the male… the female has proven much more difficult to photograph.)

We’ve had at least three Varied thrushes in the yard at one time, but the much more common occurrence is a single male.  The thrushes will be headed back up into the Cascades for breeding season soon but as of March 22 we still have two males visiting the yard.

We’ve had 5-6 Golden-crowned sparrows spend the winter in the yard.  They are slowly beginning to develop their breeding plumage and will be leaving in the next few weeks for breeding grounds farther north.  It seems like the males wait until their plumage peaks and then they abruptly migrate, robbing us of longer views of their golden crown.

While enjoying our pre-rain sunny day on March 21 a Brown creeper entered the yard and attempted to access one of the bird baths.  Unfortunately the bird bath was in use by a couple of larger birds and the creeper’s timidity kept it from the bath.

On March 20 I observed two different crows, one in the yard and another in the marina area, transporting nesting materials.  The crows, too, have begun to pair up for the mating season and a couple have staked a claim to our yard.  They are probably influenced by the peanuts I feed them.  I’ve noted in prior years that the crows eschew picking up sticks from the ground and instead prefer to wrestle dead twigs from the canopy.

As of late I have more news than photos, but the individual who considers himself my editor is griping about the lack of posts.  So here’s a post with the news…

I shipped my precious primary lens to Nikon’s repair facility in Los Angeles almost two weeks ago, dreading the repair charge I was assessed two years ago.  (I won’t say what the previous lens repairs cost, but a lot of people have cameras that don’t cost as much!)  Nikon was very prompt in telling me that the repairs would be covered under warranty (which had long ago expired), a fact I appreciated and decided not to argue!  Nikon still has the lens and its status is currently listed as a “parts hold”.

So I haven’t taken any photos since at least early February.  There are no new photos to post, but to appease those of you who access this site for photos I’ll post one of a male Mountain bluebird I took outside Winthrop last summer.  (There is a more dramatic canvass print of this bird displayed in Mary Ann’s Kitchen in Anacortes.)

I was just thinking that we would make it through this season without a significant snow when at least those of us living on the east side of Anacortes managed two.  Our second, on, February 24, was very wet and didn’t last long due to higher temps, but nevertheless was significant.  Both of my observations I’m relating here occurred on that day.

The first observation occurred in my yard during the heaviest part of the snow.  A Ruby-crowned kinglet, a species in unusually short supply at my house this season, and a Bewick’s wren took turns accessing my hanging, inverted suet feeder.  These are both birds that aren’t usually found at suet feeders, but I have had other occurrences of each at the suet feeder this season.

The temperature never dipped below freezing for this second snow but the sheer volume of snow covered the ground for an hour or so.  After most of the snow melted I headed out to make up for some of the walks I missed earlier in the week due to weather.  For about the past year or so I’ve been able to hand-feed Chestnut-backed chickadees and an occasional Red-breasted nuthatch along my route.  (I take great pride in feeding no-waste seed and am NOT responsible for the peanuts, corn, milo and millet that other well-meaning nature lovers leave.)  I’ve noticed several species of sparrows that seem interested in obtaining food from my hand, but until yesterday none could work up the courage to doing so.

Yesterday (2/24/2018) I noticed a Song sparrow approaching unusually close, and it finally took the plunge and hopped onto my hand!  Unlike the other birds which always take a single seed and fly away with it, the sparrow stayed for several “beak-fulls” before retreating back into the bushes.  Although I stayed quite a while longer, it never returned for more seed.

I figured this might be a unique occurrence, but when I returned for another walk the next day the Song sparrow made another trip to my hand.  After it finished I noticed another that seemed interested and extended my hand to within about three inches of the bird before it thought better of the risk and retreated into the bushes.