Awoke to a heavy wet spring snow covering everything and figured it'd be a good opportunity to capture images of birds that I don't normally see in snow. Our towhees have returned, along with all sorts of other sparrows, and of course the Yellow-rumped Warblers who seem to have camped out in our yard.
I was photographing the beautiful White-throated Sparrows in the snowy forsythia when I saw this:
Black and white... orange legs, looks like a black head... and is that a hint of yellow on its wings? Could it be...
YES! A male Blackpoll Warbler!
I've never seen one of these before. Couldn't believe my luck. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! While these birds are widely spread throughout Canada, the only time to catch them here in the States is during their fall migration to South America.
It moved from bloom to bloom and I wasn't sure if it was finding tiny bugs that had crawled into the flowers to escape the snow, or if it was drinking nectar.
The bird was kind enough to show me what it was after: It's pulling out the interior of the flowers and eating them:
Stewart Monckton from Australia, who writes a couple fabulous blogs, wrote something a few weeks ago that I really identified with as a bird lover: It's finding the unexpected in a frequented spot that really makes observing nature interesting. Finding this beautiful bird right outside our bedroom window is such an unexpected treat. For me this is what enjoying the outdoors is all about.
Wonder what else this odd spring weather will bring to our yard. Suppose that's the one good thing about having such cold, wet weather: Interesting birds!
