The Nature of Things

The autumn retreat of the wood warblers through my yard continues, much to my delight. The latest one to pass through - at least the latest one that stopped to introduce itself - was this lovely little bird. At first glance, I thought I was seeing a Townsend's Warbler , which I've had passing through the yard before. But then I noticed something different about the bird and when I uploaded my pictures and looked at them it was even more obvious. Can you see that faint yellow wash across the vent area? That is diagnostic of the Black-throated Green Warbler , a bird that is very similar to the Townsend's. The Black-throated Green is actually the more common of the two, but I had never seen one in the yard before. No doubt they had been here, as I am sure have many other birds that I haven't observed, but this was the species' first "official" visit. It was number 111 on my yard list. Like all the warblers I have seen in my yard recently, this one was attract...

For the last couple of weeks, there has been a series of migrating warblers passing through my yard. They don't usually announce themselves. Fall migration is like a silent retreating army, with not a lot of singing like we hear in the spring. When it comes to the fall warblers, they are mostly an army dressed in olive drab. Gone are the bright colors of spring and summer. These birds are not interested in calling attention to themselves. For those two reasons - lack of singing and absence of bright colors - the visitors can be easily overlooked as they busily search the leaves for insects, unless one is making a special effort to look for them. But I've been lucky enough to see several of the little birds recently because I have a secret weapon - water. I have a small fountain in my backyard and it gurgles and splashes with water and that is a magnet to the birds, especially to the warblers. Every one that I have seen recently has been visiting that fountain. And so it was aga...