Hello tweeters,

I'm spending a day home to get some work done, and I couldn't have picked
a better day. When I work at my computer, I can look out at a swatch of
yard, and the yard has been full of migrants all morning. Four species
of warblers (Orange-crowned, Yellow, Audubon's Yellow-rumped, and
Wilson's) have visited the fountain, and there have also been a Hermit
Thrush, 4 Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a Western Tanager in the yard.
The thrush and sparrows have been foraging in the somewhat weedy lawn,
and Wilson's Warblers have been in sight almost constantly. I see
Yellows in the yard rarely, and this beautiful male alternated with a
male Wilson's bathing in the fountain, while an Orange-crowned waited its
turn in the shrubbery. Wonderful yard birding. The Orange-crowns that
are here now are the duller greenish Vermivora celata celata that breeds
in Alaska, not the yellow-breasted V. c. lutescens that breeds around
here. A few times in the past I've seen both types together in the yard.

Two lessons from my morning. (1) All of the migrants are the latest of
their species I've ever seen in the yard (except tanager and Wilson's,
which occasionally turn up in summer), and even from my limited
observations, it's obvious that migration is really late this year. (2)
I can't emphasize enough how a trickling fountain at the edge of a patch
of shrubs attracts birds. I think the warblers can hear it from some
distance, as it seems to draw them right down out of the trees. You've
heard this from me before, but it never fails to amaze me. A pair of
Red-breasted Nuthatches is breeding high in a tree in the ravine behind
us, yet they make a point of coming down to ground level for a bath.

Dennis

Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 528-1382