I’ve been somewhat negligent in the upkeep of this blog.  I’m still attempting to process the 800+ photos I took on a Texas trip in April and another 800+ photos I took on a trip to California this month.  And in the meanwhile, the birding here at the house has really picked up.  We have a multitude of birds that are being attracted to the yard which includes newly fledged young.  So here are some of the current visitors to the yard…

We have at least two pair of California quail visiting the yard but strangely, there is no sign of chicks

After two to three weeks of meager warbler sightings, I have finally observed and photographed at least two Orange-crowned warblers visiting the yard.

We’ve had at least one pair of Spotted towhees in and around the yard all spring and we now have at least two fledged young visiting the yard.  The young can be difficult to identify as they look nothing like the adults and can resemble some members of the sparrow/finch families.

A few of the other rather nondescript young include a Brown-headed cowbird…

and a European starling.

After seeing relatively few House finches this winter they have returned to the yard.  We have at least one mated couple but there is also an apparently an unattached male that hangs out with the pair.

The yard is filled with American goldfinches which utilize both the seed feeders and the watercourse.  This male is enjoying a bath in the watercourse.

This is one of our male House sparrows which is now feeding young.

We’ve had two families of crows that nested in the vicinity.  In one case the nest was in a tree in the front yard.  To date I haven’t seen any evidence that young have fledged, and a couple of weeks ago I saw a pair of crows building or repairing the nest in the yard.  In some past years the crows’ nests have been predated by ravens, but I’m usually alerted to that event by the crows.  As far as I know there are no ravens nesting in the neighborhood.

The particular crow pictured here is one that enjoys handouts… peanuts and the occasional grape or cherry.  It’s not obvious that this crow has a mate and it enjoys spending a considerable part of its day monitoring yard activities.

And finally, a female Black-headed grosbeak permitting a rare photographic moment.  The grosbeaks are probably our most shy birds… any movement on my part usually terminates their visit.

I’m still waiting for some rarer visitors… an Olive-sided flycatcher, Red crossbills, a Western tanager or Cedar waxwings… birds we’ve enjoyed in past summers.

The Red elderberries in my area are ripening, and they attract several different species of birds.  I see mainly American robins, but the berries are also attractive to crows, Western tanagers and probably grosbeaks and waxwings.  This past week I spent some time parked in front of neighbors’ houses monitoring a huge elderberry bush.  Here are a couple of photos I took while there.

Here’s a photo of a mature robin sitting above a cluster of berries…

And here is a photo of a juvenile American robin, the only one I’ve seen so far this season.  I usually have quite a few young show up in the watercourse shortly after they have fledged.

The weather has been good so I’ve been spending time photographing instead of posting to my blog.  But I have several little stories to tell in connection with recent photos so I’ll get to it!

It’s not unusual for us to get kinglets in the yard, but they are much more a winter bird than a spring or summer bird here.  I was surprised a couple of weeks ago to log a Golden-crowned kinglet in our yard.  A week or so later I had a visit from two Golden-crowned kinglets.  I thought they looked a little rough at the time but I ascribed it to perhaps seeing them after they had a bath in the watercourse.  I managed a couple of photos and in processing the photos I realized that I had taken photos of a couple of juveniles, probably not too long from the nest but they could fly well.  Here are a couple of the photos…

I’ve had at least one male Black-headed grosbeak visit the yard for the past several weeks.  I have on much rarer occasions seen a female Black-headed grosbeak, but she has been a lot more cautious about entering the yard and has flown at any movement or attention on my part.  A couple of days ago, in the middle of the afternoon, I was just getting ready to abandon my observation post in the yard when a female flew into full view and landed beside the watercourse.  The sun was out and I was able to take maybe 20-30 photos under ideal conditions!  I no longer have to worry about having some good female Black-headed grosbeaks in my inventory.

I’ve been having many daily visits from Wilson’s warblers for the past several weeks.  I consider it the most prolific warbler visitor to our yard.  My inventory of Wilson warbler photos continues to grow, but I noticed a strange coincidence when processing photos a couple of days ago.

We have a Golden-chain tree in the front yard.  It’s not native and we aren’t proud of it but it offers one of the best natural perches for birds around the yard and many of them use it to stage before coming down to the watercourse or one of the feeders.  On this particular day I had photographed several Wilson warbler visits, but as I was cropping my photos (almost all have to be cropped!) I noticed a similar leaf pattern on two different series of photos taken some time apart.  I went back and checked the photos and found that I had photos of both a male and female Wilson’s warbler, both sitting on the same small twig at different times.

See for yourself!  The first photo shows a male Wilson’s warbler facing to the left and the second photo shows a female facing to the right, but they are both on the same twig.  The sexes can be distinguished by the intensity of the bird’s crown, dark-black in the male and a lighter-colored crown in the female.

I don’t have any new species to display but I have taken a lot of new photos.  First I should mention that as of about two days ago (5/15) the Bushtits I featured on one of my prior posts were still feeding young in the nest.  Just prior to leaving for Texas (on 4/17) the Bushtit’s nest had been substantially completed and I assumed that the young would have fledged by the end of April or shortly thereafter.  When I checked the nest on 5/ the parents were still actively feeding young.

At the same general location a couple of days ago I visited late in the afternoon and thought that I saw at least three, and possibly four, male Western tanagers on a Red elderberry bush/tree.  The berries are not yet mature/ripe, but a day later I photographed a couple of crows eating the berries.   If you want to photograph birds find yourself a Red elderberry tree with ripe berries… the trees attract a wide variety of birds.

Back in the yard, I’m having several visits a day from one or more male Black-headed grosbeaks.  On one occasion I saw a female, but it has yet to be spotted on a feeder.

About a week ago we began having visits from Wilson’s warblers, generally the most common warbler visitor to our yard at this time of year.  These are beautiful birds!

The Turkey vultures have returned to the Pacific Northwest and will be with us until again migrating south this fall.

This male House finch is a regular visitor to the yard lately and it seems to be without a mate thus far.

And finally, leaving the yard once again and back to the wetlands, I found this American robin in the bushes with a beak full of salmon berries!

So many birds, so little time!  I’m still processing the 880 photos I took on an April trip to Texas to photograph some of the spring migrants through Central Texas.  In the meantime I haven’t been able to stay out of my own yard photographing birds.  On Tuesday (5/10/2016) afternoon, within about a five-minute time period, I photographed three warbler species:  a male MacGillivray’s, an Orange-crowned and a male Wilson’s.  In addition I’ve seen (and photographed several Yellow-rumped Audubon’s warblers passing through.  And since last week we’ve had a male Black-headed grosbeak visiting the yard daily.  Today I saw the grosbeak fly from the watercourse giving me hope for some really good photos in the future.  And also today, we saw the first female grosbeak on one of the feeders.

So here are a few photos of some of our visitors…

Got to love these warblers… in this case a male Yellow-rumped Audubon’s.  

This is a post-bath female Downy woodpecker.

A female Cowbird, bad news for all other songbird species.

This is our male Black-headed grosbeak.  It sings in the woods during the day, but shows up in the yard multiple times each day.

This European starling is one of many that show up for suet to feel its young at this time of year.  It’s discouraging to keep the suet feeders up (to the tune of a couple of cakes per day), but the Downy woodpeckers and Northern flickers access the suet for the same reason and I can’t bring myself to deprive them of the food.

A White-crowned sparrow accessing the watercourse for a bath.

We have at least one pair of California quail that show up in the yard each day.  On this particular day the male was alone and he walked up to within 10-12 feet of me for a drink.

We still have a good supply of Pine siskins visiting the feeders and water.  These birds occasionally disappear for long periods of time but in some winters can be our most numerous yard birds.

A male House sparrow, a species I generally detest but I liked this photo.

A Spotted towhee singing.  Presumably this is a male, but it seems that we may have two males feeding around the yard in addition to at least one female who doesn’t visit as often.

And my pride and joy… a male MacGillivray’s warbler that visited the yard on 5/10.  This is maybe the second or third visit by this species we’ve seen in the last 7-8 years, and I may have only seen one or two in other locations.  This isn’t a great photo, but it’s enough for an identification.  Unfortunately I had problems with focusing during its visit.