Yard Bird #82

We had our 82nd yard bird species appear on Friday afternoon.  The bird was a blackpoll warbler.  I happened to be sitting in my chair at the kitchen window as I often do, just watching out back, when I suddenly noticed a warbler like bird in the pine outside the window.  I grabbed the camera and the bins, and outside I went.

Now it is fall and many of the warbler species can be tough for many of us to ID.  This is partially why I started photographing birds very early on; to help Angie and I figure out some of the birds we were seeing in our travels.

This bird stumped me a little bit.  I asked a friend of mine his thoughts.  He threw bay-breasted or blackpoll.  He asked me if I saw the bird's feet.  If they were orange, it was a blackpoll.  Thankfully I got a lot of pictures of the bird, many crappy (which is why I kept shooting) and there was some foot and backside shots where I could see it's feet.  Definitely orange.

So that's pretty cool to have another new yard bird, eh.  Only 18 more until we hit the big 100.  I wonder if we will ever see that or not?  I don't count the birds that I see fly over our yard on the yard list.  Some do.  Not me.  That's a separate list called "from the yard".

Do you track your yard birds?

New Friend, New Yard Bird and...

Hello everyone.  I'm well on the mend (I think) and thank you to those who have reached out to me since my last blog where I touched upon my health issues.  We shall see come Wednesday with my next doctor appointment on where I am at with getting back to work, and a more normal life.  What a fun morning that will be since it will be my birthday too.  Let's hope for really good news and continued progress, moving forward with my recovery.  Besides getting back to a regular routine, having a steady pay cheque will be nice as it will be time to start feeding the birds more so as the weather cools.  I'm sure no one here wants to see a blog from me asking for peanut and seed donations (if I am still off in another month).

It's been a long, frustrating, somewhat boring 7 weeks.  I will take feeling good, if not great, and going to work over this being home, dizzy and nauseous a good chunk of the day, every day.

As always, I'm very thankful for the creatures around us.

I made a new pigeon friend the last few weeks.  He's a scrawny young bird who obviously has been taking some mental notes about how Charlie, Slate and Gandalf come to my hands and get a good feed away from the majority of other birds.  I could see him watching the birds and I.  Then one day, as I knelt down towards him, up he came to my palm.  The following day he did it again.  Then there was a lull for a couple days with some hesitancy, he'd think about it, take a fly to me but quickly back off.  He got over those fears and is now a near daily visitor.  He's even getting bolder, trying to hold his own against the bigger older birds.  Good for him!  He and Angie had a moment 2 weekends ago and she's now named him Lefty.  Why Lefty?  Because he flew to her left hand while she sat outside, and then he sat on her left knee.  Works for me.

Lefty has some really unique colouring on his wing feathers.

Let's hope he's around for a long time to come.

We had our 81st yard bird species come to us over this past weekend.  A scarlet tanager!  It was a female who made a short appearance at one of our bird baths, having a little splash.  We don't see many of this species in our travels, maybe one per migration season, and in the spring it is usually a breeding male who looks very different than this little lady.

What could have made for a funny bird story is if I went with what my SEEK app said the bird was, a painted bunting (rare for our area but not impossible).  This could have caused a frenzy, and a lot of debate, in the birding world if I reported it as such.

It's exciting to keep a yard list of the birds, especially during migration.  We're always looking, wondering what may be next to stop in here, hoping for another new species.  Birds are on the move through our area and here's a few other sightings from the last week around our home.

Blue grey gnatcatcher, sometimes we call 'em "mini-mockingbirds".

Black-throated green warbler (one of my favourites).

Blackburnian warbler.  I've seen more around our house and neighbourhood the last 2 weeks than anywhere, ever.  Certainly not as flashy as a male in breeding plumage but still nice to see.

Red-eyed vireo.  One showed up in our backyard not long after the tanager.

We've got a few weeks left with fall migration, so let's see if we get any other visitors.

The only other excitement around here is seeing this fox near our home one morning.  The fox is like my nemesis mammal, or seemingly has been over the years.  I miss spotting them in a few places where others see them.  This guy is very local to us and as well, a number of times this year, I have missed seeing him by mere minutes when I have gone for a walk.  I lucked out recently although the sighting was very brief.  We just happened to be crossing paths from some distance.  I only wish he stopped and sat for a moment, and a prettier photo came out of it.  Oh well, I am still happy I saw him.

Thanks for stopping in.  Enjoy the fall season and I will be back with more soon.

Cheers!