The equinox has been a good time for birding in our yard in Tacoma's
North End. After catching a brief glimpse of our first Rufous Hummingbird
female of the year feeding from a feeder in front of our living room
window, later in the afternoon yesterday Natalie and I watched the same
female nectaring from the hundreds of lavender and blue blooms on the
rosemary below the living room window. I watched a male Rufous
Hummingbird feeding from these same blooms on Wednesday, and I am looking
forward to the opening of blooms on a red flowering currant just a few
feet away that is about to burst into bloom any day.

Birding in our urban yard can be pretty pedestrian this time of year, as
we wait for the warblers and migrating birds to flow through the
neighborhood, but on Wednesday, between the rain showers, it was fun to
watch the growing numbers of Golden-crowned Sparrows joining our single
Song Sparrow to feed on the ground underneath the feeders that are full
of sunflower seeds. The Golden-crowned Sparrows were picking at some
sunflower seeds that had started sprouting, eating the soft sprouted seed
as well as the tender sprout itself. Meanwhile, for the first time in
weeks there were bright White-crowned Sparrows in the yard as well.

We're looking forward to much more diverse birding this weekend, as we
make the trek to Othello for the Sandhill Crane Festival tomorrow morning
and then spend all day Sunday birding in the area and on our way home.
Hope to see some of you on the road!

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com/
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html