Early Christmas present?

Today was one of those days where there are so many birds in so many places that you don’t know where to look first ~ and what really made today special were the number of ‘rarities’!  Was it an early Christmas present?

The day didn’t start out extraordinarily different – just sort of gray and misty, but at least it was dry…

come lunch time there is a very large flock of Golden crowned Kinglets all along the trail (not a great picture, but at least you can see the ‘golden crown’)….

It was while I was attempting to get some pictures of them that I realized that one of them wasn’t a Kinglet at all but….

a Townsend’s Warbler!!! Now I realize the above is an awful picture (another one of those ‘proof it was there’ pictures) ~ which is the reason I’ve included it.  To see a Townsend’s Warbler in this area at any time is uncommon – to see one on December 1st?!!!

Fortunately I had taken my binoculars with me, and was able to spot it again, so can vouch 100% that is what it was…

But the surprises just kept coming….along in the clearing at the log bay there was another large flock of mainly Dark Eyed Juncos with some Song Sparrows and then I spotted….

an American Tree Swallow…. again a poor picture but I got a good look at it and that is definitely what it was….a first for this area (they’ve been documented in nearby Kilby before) as far as I know and brings my species list for the area up to 166.

Of course the usual species were out there as well….

Great Blue Heron, Mallard and Glaucous Wing Gull….mixed in with Mallard in this area was one Green Wing Teal and 3 female Northern Shovelers….Shovelers are a duck species that we see on occasion, I had been wondering when some would show up. If they hang around maybe I’ll manage a picture.

There were a number of Bald Eagle feeding on the shoreline, along with the gulls.

more out on the flats…

and in the trees off of the golf course – I didn’t attempt a count but a guesstimate would be between two and three hundred today – easy…

Heading back home…a flock of about a dozen Bohemian Waxwing flew over…..another new species for the area (at least for me – bringing the species total to 167)