After getting a bit of a late start bird-watching this spring (I was still in winter-torpor mode through most of April), I went on a few walks with our local birding club and then went out in earnest around our property, heading out at least once, sometimes twice every day.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmnKfqbFVV1rq2y1k7PPVQMlFP6cRtH52a1dMOCU4SAlu_na2Ki_Xy9rsIcXJ99sYFWd_qodVZPzPs6aVOQegpVxT0h_whdJ0zzHif30qf2ghxKF11EUX-lyg5Ml10Ep2J6lzRXnbtz0J/s640/IMG_1640.JPG) |
Yellow-rumped warbler |
Without wishing to minimize the very real skills of my professional birding friends, I think a lot of success in bird-watching comes from being in the right place at the right time.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n5swhPmbEf6R1hOqNbdP4VjuXrp80anaPNiMSlkLAIQqOiDQ_7BsqU6Tpz_yrYZ0sHc1Mw2LaEQAIPHXt9PrLEehug_oxztap3oVafdbBSYTeG4tqwqWCPR2t6NB5Ak47dgy2t_peoTM/s640/IMG_1646.JPG) |
Rose-breasted grossbeak |
And I've been very lucky that birds like our property and that I'm home to check on their activities on a daily basis.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtIA0xQXYDfRXw0-w3yBXGROinqCJ2Ah0bgBjIjRuXLfx-Vn4c7weemHgQ9lJDNsA-o-7jgMxI4KJUwyUjYA6AmuPHFl14UV1e0AVrBX_OyqtvPRUV5NyR2toG8r3aJ-Qm6AjJqGEdpvC/s640/IMG_1699.JPG) |
Baltimore oriole |
This least flycatcher, too, was lucky I was home yesterday when he flew into the window on our sunroom door. He lay on his back, stunned, and I brought him in the house and set up a little grass nest for him. After a couple of hours, he seemed to have recovered sufficiently and I set him on the kiwi vine on the deck. He sat their a few minutes before disappearing in the moment I looked away.
And speaking of flycatchers, while I was tending to the least, which is our smallest flycatcher, a great-crested flycatcher, which is one of our largest, arrived to claim territory in the trees around our house. It's a bird I need to relearn every spring, though I think now that I've spent an afternoon listening to him whoop and trill, I'll have it down pat.
What's wild in your neck of the woods this week?
I love that grosbeak photo. In fact, they're all great. I saw a bluebird out in the country the other day!
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