While my focus in this post will be on May 10, I want to mention that on May 8 I saw my first Wilson’s warbler of the season (a male) in the yard. I was inside the house when I spotted the warbler bathing in the watercourse. I grabbed my camera but had trouble inserting a media card, and by the time I got to the yard the bird was gone!  I waited around for some time hoping the warbler would return, but it did not so I missed the opportunity to record the event. 

On May 10, two days later, I had the opportunity to sit outside beginning about 7am for about 50 minutes before meeting a friend for breakfast. During this time my second Wilson’s warbler (also a male) showed up, and this time I was able to obtain photos!  

I was gone a substantial part of the morning but by the time noon rolled around I had tallied three more Wilson’s warblers and an Orange-crowned warbler which was a co-visitor on one of the sightings. 

By the end of my birding day I had added another Orange-crowned warbler late for a total of two. 

As exciting as this was, the afternoon was relatively slow birding… until my first Black-headed grosbeak (male) of the season appeared!  The grosbeak visited the suet and sunflower/peanut pieces feeders and the farthest bird bath, hanging around the yard for probably about 15 minutes. I didn’t get any good photos but I was able to document the event. 

I had a friend join me for the latter part of the afternoon and while we were watching the grosbeak there was a loud and persistent song coming from outside the yard, which I thought might be a grosbeak even though the Merlin app was identifying it as a robin.  

I set up an interesting experiment. I have been unable to distinguish an American robin’s call from a Black-headed grosbeak’s call and in the past I suspected that the Merlin identification of the grosbeak’s call might be incorrectly attributed to a robin. (I’ll own this as a personal problem!) 

So this friend and I set up a little experiment. He activated his Merlin app to record and identify bird songs and I activated my Sibley app to play a grosbeak’s song. Without fail the Merlin app identified the grosbeaks’ songs as a grosbeak!  It’s now clear to me that I need to train my ear more in this regard!  

So this was my best yard birding day this season, with multiple sightings of three major migrants, and I’m not including Rufous hummingbirds, Turkey vultures, American goldfinches or White-crowned sparrows.  (The latter two species I consider migrants as far as my yard/location is concerned). 

I’ve been anxiously awaiting spring migration arrivals that began in May in past years, but have been disappointed in what I’ve seen thus far. 

I’m getting sporadic sightings of Rufous hummingbirds but the Anna’s hummingbirds are more frequent, reliable visitors. This Rufous is feeding from blossoms on my Evergreen huckleberry bush.

I would normally have a dozen or more American goldfinches visiting by now but I only have two pair at most. While these birds are in the greater area year-round, they are only regular visitors to my yard in the spring and summer. 

I’ve had a few sightings of warblers (Orange-crowned and male Yellow-rumped Audubon’s) but I’m only having one or two sightings per day, and some days I have none. 

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On two different days I’ve had what I believe to be a female Red  crossbill briefly visit the yard but have thus far been unable to obtain photos of the bird. While I would have liked to have better observations or photos for identification, at the time of both observations my Merlin app (available for free from Cornell Lab) confirmed crossbills were in the vicinity. 

I’ve had a single, very young Douglas squirrel in the yard for several days. It made its debut by rushing from bushes directly in front of me and taking a flying leap… directly into my watercourse’s pond!  I was afraid I was going to have to resurrect my old lifesaving skills, but it managed to struggle back to land on its own. 

Meanwhile, out of the yard, on my morning walk in WA Park on May 7, upon arriving I decided to investigate tapping I heard and found a male Pileated woodpecker working on a  cedar tree… less than 15 feet away and only about four feet above the ground!  My only camera was an iPhone but I managed a couple of photos before the bird flew. 

Quite frankly, I’m concerned about the species and numbers of spring migrants I’m seeing in my yard thus far. 

April 27, 2025, began as an overcast day and I was hopeful that I might have a good afternoon of birding photography.  Shortly after midday, the sun broke through and we ended up having a cloudless sky for the afternoon. I began sitting in the yard about 4pm and by 5pm there had been very few birds enter the yard.

On a couple of occasions, I observed a small sparrow-like bird hopping around the yard and it piqued my curiosity for two reasons; 

• It was almost certainly a sparrow (feeding on the ground) yet I couldn’t readily identify it; 
• It was always alone in the yard with no other birds around. 

Finally, a little after 5pm the bird emerged into the open at my nearest water feature where I was able to observe and photograph it at length (105 photos, 32 of which I retained!). I was ecstatic!  The bird appeared to be a Lincoln’s sparrow, but I was somewhat uncertain since I hadn’t seen one in several years and I could never remember having seen one in the yard.

At 6pm I retired from the yard and immediately began processing my photos, discovering that it was indeed a Lincoln‘s sparrow!  I’ve lived at this address for 17 years and I’m virtually certain that I’ve never seen a Lincoln’s sparrow in the yard! 

Easter Sunday was a great day for birding photography with slightly overcast skies, and on this day the birds cooperated. I had my third warbler of the season arrive in the yard and I quickly lost my seasonal count of the numbers of individual warblers that subsequently arrived.

I posted myself in the yard about noon and the first warbler of the day, an Orange-crowned warbler, arrived shortly thereafter, It came to the watercourse for a bath so I obtained good photos, with most showing the bird’s orange crown.

About an hour later I had a second sighting of an Orange-crowned warbler and I’m fairly certain it was a different bird than the first. Since I obtained photos of both I could compare the images and see that the two sightings were apparently of different birds.

I had a brief influx of at least a couple of juvenile Pine siskins, the first I have ever felt comfortable identifying as juveniles. These birds were absolutely adorable!

Here is an adult Pine Siskin for comparison…

About 1:30pm I went inside to perform some food preparation but in looking out my kitchen window I saw a male Yellow-rumped warbler bathing in the watercourse. I raced for my camera and tried to sneak outside for photos, but such efforts have a relatively low success rate and this time was no different. The bird flew without me being able to obtain any photos, a big disappointment! While I was still outside, a short time later a female Yellow-rumped warbler entered the yard via a usual warbler route. I saw her approaching through bushes but she spooked upon reaching the water feature and I again had no opportunity for photos.

I returned to cooking chores but was outside when two Red-breasted nuthatches accessed one of the water features. I mention this because it’s relatively rare for me to have two nuthatches in the yard at the same time. This appeared to be a pair so I’m hopeful I may see some young at some point.

Next up, at 3:40pm, were a pair of Yellow-rumped warblers that both entered the watercourse at the same time and bathed. I have no way of knowing if either of these birds were the same as those I saw earlier but was unable to photograph, but I did obtain photos of this pair.

I obtained several nice photos of one of two White-crowned sparrows I have in the yard. It seems like I get a mating pair every year but they are often parasitized by Brown-headed cowbirds.

So on this day I saw two different species of warblers and at least four different warblers. I’m looking forward to more arrivals over the next weeks!

If you haven’t read my prior post, April 11, 2025: My First Spring Warbler, you might want to read it before this post!  

After having seen the Orange-crowned warbler on the previous day, I was primed for an influx of warblers!  I spent time in the yard in early afternoon, was joined by a friend in mid-afternoon and after going to dinner with the friend in late afternoon we again birded in the yard until we lost good light and he had to return to Seattle. 

It was for the most part another rather uninteresting day dominated by Golden-crowned sparrows and Pine siskins. However we did have one rather interesting Pine Siskin sporting as much color as any one I’ve ever seen. 

Another interesting observation/set of photos was a male Golden-crowned sparrow eating madrone blossoms. 

During my middle birding session in the yard my friend suddenly spotted a male Yellow-rumped warbler in the Madrone tree directly in front of us. I hadn’t seen it enter the yard which was somewhat unusual… it just appeared right in front of us. It descended towards the watercourse, at one point pausing to sing, giving me ample opportunities for photos. 

This was the second warbler I had seen this season and fulfilled my anticipation that, like the previous spring, male Yellow-rumped warblers would be among the early migrant arrivals. 

I’ve now seen two different warblers in as many days, so I’m hopeful for more in the coming days!