Limited birding….

Today is the third sunny day with temperatures up into the mid-twenties.  Unfortunately I have found out that a chemotherapy drug I am taking has made me very sensitive to sun shine….I haven’t been a heat lover for a long time, but apparently now, I am even more restricted….therefore the title…’birding is limited’…

Will start with a scene from yesterday evening when I ventured out in the evening….there is a duck in this picture – I think a female Mallard and I’m pretty sure, from the sounds she was making, that she had ducklings with her, but she sensed I was there and they never came into view.

It was a beautiful evening though…the American Bittern were calling from across the water…

it was getting kind of dark for taking pictures but I tried anyway and this one of a male Yellow Warbler didn’t turn out too bad.  There were a number of Yellow Warblers down there.

made a quick trip down today (it is shady once you get there)…the amazing thing is that despite all this warm weather the water levels had continued to drop or at least remain stable, I think today they were starting to inch up slightly.  There was a male Western Tanager down here and also several Bullock’s Oriole, but none willing to have pictures taken.

a male Red-wing Blackbird was standing guard and I could hear Canada Geese, but again, nobody co-operated by coming into view.

The Evening Grosbeaks continue in large numbers.  Today has been the first day when there has been a constant stream of them to my feeders. The Band Tail Pigeons are still here but a bit intimidated by all the Grosbeaks.

large numbers of Purple Finch are still here as well – this pair were eating dandelion seeds from plants growing in a crack in the pavement…

I’m putting in another picture in hopes it might get make people realize that it is OK to leave ‘weeds’ – one man’s ‘weed’ is a birds ‘dinner’!

the warm weather has certainly brought an increase in the number of Rufous Hummingbirds!

I’m not positive, but I think this tiny little female with no markings on the chin is a Calliope Hummingbird.  She was around all day yesterday – haven’t seen her today but I’ve been hiding from the sun.  Calliopes are sometimes seen here as they migrate through to the interior.