At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I'm hoping someone can tell me what
bird I saw this morning. I should tell you that I'm not really an active
birder, more of a, let's say, proprietress of a bird bed-and-breakfast: most
of the birds I see are from my kitchen window. Luckily, I live in a place
where I get a diverse mix of guests. So anyway, this morning I saw a little
bird picking at the blueberry suet. It looked like a chickadee at first -- it
was more or less that shape and heft -- but when I got closer I noticed it
had a yellow head with black stripes. (I know there are a lot of other things
about it I was supposed to notice but didn't, mesmerized as I was by its
pretty head.) It was very brave -- didn't even fly away when I opened the
door to let out the dog. I looked in my Sibley's and decided it must be some
kind of warbler. Is that right? I've never seen a warbler of any kind in the
wild before, so I feel pretty clueless.

For what it's worth, I live about a half a mile from what was once a
beautiful second-growth (?) forest and is now a clearcut wasteland where a
new housing development is about to be. We've seen a lot of unusual visitors
lately, not, I think, uncoincidentally (including a pileated woodpecker, a
Bewick's wren, starlings for the first time, some kind of raptor I couldn't
ID, and even a flying squirrel). Any ideas? What should I look for if the
bird comes back?

Jennifer Scott
Bainbridge Island
JLScott53 at aol.com