Warblers stop by during their migration
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For the few weeks, the hybrid poplars in my backyard have been very busy with a variety of songbirds stopping by to eat some tiny hatching insects.
Several species of warblers have shown up along with resident Black-capped chickadees and even some Ruby-crowned kinglets.
Then the chokecherry bushes became home to the fruit-eating Cedar waxwings to add a little more color by the visiting songbirds.
Fall is always an exciting time of the year for me, and with the great weather we have been having, it has been really nice to have these birds visiting.
A secondary blessing has been the lack of a killing frost so I can still enjoy lunch in my garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and green beans to snack on.
About three weeks ago, a flock of about 40 Yellow-rumped warblers showed up in my backyard.
About a week later while watching them, I noticed several other species of warblers showing up with the Yellow-rumped.
Townsend’s and Orange-crowned species joined in the harvest of small flying insects hatching in and around my trees.
Then came the chickadees. I was hoping for a Black-and-white or a Blackburnian warbler to show up, but they did not that I saw even though they have in past falls.
One of my chokecherry bushes had an abundance of berries on it that came late, so most of the robins had migrated on, leaving the berries for other species.
A few starlings showed up, but last week a flock of Cedar waxwings discovered them and spent two days getting their fill before moving on.
They only ate about half of the berries as with the unusually warmer weather, the berries began to dry up.
It is going to be interesting to see if several other species of birds show up to eat the dehydrated berries later on.
I suspect that the Cedar waxwings along with the Bohemian ones will find the food when the weather turns cooler.
With some of the warblers still around, this week the Ruby-crowned kinglets showed up to feast on the hatching insects.
These tiny birds are so busy picking off the small insects, they are hard to photograph, and their “ruby crown” is tough to see.
The crown on the males, doesn’t look like a crown, but looks like someone put a red-pencil line on the top of their heads.
They look like they visited someone while they were studying and marking their scriptures!!!!
Be alert this weekend, if we get the promised rain and snow in the mountains, we may get some interesting migrants showing up in our yards. The first bad weather we usually get, brings in a few oddities for us to enjoy.
I have also had a few flickers visiting my backyard and if it turns cold, I will be putting out my winter feeders.
The American goldfinches have about cleaned out the seeds from my sunflowers and are starting to beg for seeds to be put out.
Putting my fall feeders out during the first bad weather will attract nuthatches, Brown creepers and Stellar’s jays when they start looking for some easy meals.
I hope all of you have been enjoying the colorful fall that we have been having.
Be safe and enjoy the rest of it.
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