I was very, very surprised to see a small bird with wingbars flitting around outside my bedroom window today, as I live in a bird-free area. Blackpoll Warbler? What a fine surprise, I thought, until I saw it had a gray face, a grass-green crown, nape and back, and humungous wingbars. Chesnut-sided! That got me wondering what else I'd seen from my "yard," but when I made a list I found many 'maybes' and 'possiby's'. Not good enough! So I watched out the window and tallied a pair of kestrels, a goldfinch and a few flyby cowbirds to make myself feel a bit better.
Anyhow, the call of the backyard didn't last. My sudden was shatterred when a boring old House Sparrow (I think, no, I hope) slammed into the same window I'd seen the warbler out of. So I had an afternoon at the beach, where the only shorebird was a single Buff-breasted (!!), and migrants were in abundance. Mostly redstart and yellowthroats, but one Black-and-White Warbler, a first of season Ruby-crowned Kinglet, two Eastern Wood-Pewees, a phoebe, waxwings, flickers, two Baltimore Orioles, a Scarlet Tanager, a calling Veery (a series of "veer" notes so soft that I thought they were coming from a few dozen yards away, when in fact they were from a bird hidden five feet from me!) a Nashville Warbler (trying to be a redstart, but the eyering immediately threw the red flag on the field for me), a pair of Purple Finches, and a pair of Chipping Sparrows, ones curiously still in juvenile plumage. I'd never seen Purple Finches or Nashville Warblers at this site (much less the county) and Scarlet Tanager was new for the site (only) too.
The five new birds for my county-year list brought it up to 173(and that's excluding heard birds and exotics. I'll throw a fit over coutning heard birds another time....).
Also, stay tuned for Nova Scotia bird photos. I have one on my Flickr already, but still have to resize the rest for this place.
Anyhow, the call of the backyard didn't last. My sudden was shatterred when a boring old House Sparrow (I think, no, I hope) slammed into the same window I'd seen the warbler out of. So I had an afternoon at the beach, where the only shorebird was a single Buff-breasted (!!), and migrants were in abundance. Mostly redstart and yellowthroats, but one Black-and-White Warbler, a first of season Ruby-crowned Kinglet, two Eastern Wood-Pewees, a phoebe, waxwings, flickers, two Baltimore Orioles, a Scarlet Tanager, a calling Veery (a series of "veer" notes so soft that I thought they were coming from a few dozen yards away, when in fact they were from a bird hidden five feet from me!) a Nashville Warbler (trying to be a redstart, but the eyering immediately threw the red flag on the field for me), a pair of Purple Finches, and a pair of Chipping Sparrows, ones curiously still in juvenile plumage. I'd never seen Purple Finches or Nashville Warblers at this site (much less the county) and Scarlet Tanager was new for the site (only) too.
The five new birds for my county-year list brought it up to 173(and that's excluding heard birds and exotics. I'll throw a fit over coutning heard birds another time....).
Also, stay tuned for Nova Scotia bird photos. I have one on my Flickr already, but still have to resize the rest for this place.
) and I'll do likewise!