Observers: Donna Willey
Email: basina@verizon.net
Date: 09/02/2008
Time: 12:01 PM -0400
Wings outspread, yellow-rump flashing and the tail, did I mention that tail; spread out like a fan with a silky black-rimmed band running along the tip. Everywhere I look Audubon's yellow-rump has arrived on their yearly descent down the mountain. Some of them of course having never left our area but just moving higher into the mountains and some of them perhaps have been breeding elsewhere such as the west side of the crest .... it's all good, all wonderful and now they have graced my yard once more. Every time I contemplate leaving here and heading north, the birds somehow hold me, especially the warblers. The old, the young, male and female they come on their travels and on a hot day they love water as much as the hydrophile, the yellow warbler does when it searches out nest sites... The other day a walk along Mammoth creek I saw for the first time a golden-crowned kinglet... now the GCKI is not widely seen on the eastern side of our mountains and I have read, courtesy of David Gaines, that this little kinglet likes the west side of the crest so I was enchanted to see the little bird... usually after a big wind like we had two nights ago, one can expect at this time of year many new arrivals in the area and I was not disappointed. On my hike I saw 3 hermit warblers, 4 Nashville warblers, 2 yellow warblers, 5 Wilson's warblers several vireos (warbling & Cassins), 1 orange-crowned WA and the one golden-crowned kinglet. The photos included with this post are portraits of Audubon's yellow-rump and Nashville Warbler.
