...I realized today that I do not. With birding, it's bad enough that we have to figure out males from females, immatures from young adults, breeding plumage from non-breeding plumage, spring from fall warblers, etc, but today's smackdown was this:
How does this yellow and black bird....
...become THIS dark-chestnut and black bird???
Well, they are all male Orchard Orioles, the yellow/black combo fellow is a yearling, shoot me now:
My sentiments exactly, buddy, arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
So let's keep it simple with what we all know and love, the American Robin!
Seriously, folks, this morning I did a quick dash through Thickson's Woods and the east end of the Harbourfront Trail before doing another cottage run, ending the one-hour stint with four new Year birds, beginning with this vocal Gray Catbird that did not want to fully present itself to me:
I spent most of my time on the lakeshore side of the woods, where I discovered the "yearling male" Orchard Oriole, and in the same shrub discovered this female Rose-breasted Grosbeak eating an unlucky lady bug:
I heard and saw several Baltimore Orioles, but had less luck in photographing them in their entirety:
I also encountered my first "Mr. FITZbew" for the year, aka Willow Flycatcher, and those dots are indeed bugs:
This Yellow Warbler was enjoying himself:
And just to mix it up a bit, I was pleased to see two different species getting along so well!
To wrap up my hit-and-run outing with yet another YELLOW species, here's the male and female American Goldfinch:
So I find myself today drowning in a sea of YELLOW, so will sign off now as I have to begin reading my newly-purchased copy of the new National Geographic "Bird Coloration" book!
P.S. ...and yes, my Yellow-rumped Warbler greeted me upon my arrival at the cottage today!
3 comments:
Just need to note in public that the blog prose is as expressive & articulate as the pictures are beautifully and sensitively taken. This is an equally important part of the whole for without the accompanying descriptions, assessments and comments the photographs would simply be a suuccession of cleverly captured feathers. But you bring it all to life and tie it together in a delightful and entertaining way. Well done! The writing is perfect.
Thx for the kind words, Alison, I'm trying to include the commentary for my own selfish reasons too, who knows how likely I'll be to remember it all! My ongoing challenge is to keep the spelling & grammar as accurate as possible, not an easy thing in this day-and-age of internet abbreviations & shortcuts! Thx again!
wow Janice. great shots.
Post a Comment