Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their private responses on my
last post. You are all so kind, so helpful, it's pretty clear to me that the
community is part of what makes birding so special!



I've had a busy week, so no field trips this week, although later today my
wife and I going to the Arboretum and then a visit to the Audubon store for
some books that everyone has recommended to us. We've also added features to
our window (and pull the blinds when it is most reflective) and since then,
no accidents! So let's hope we've found a solution there.



I did see two new birds I've never seen before in my own backyard or in my
life really. I wanted to check with you on the probability I got the
sightings right.



YELLOW WARBLER

This little fellow was a thrill. My wife and I talked about him all day,
even though he only showed up to the feeder for about 45 seconds. He was in
full sight, quite content to check out the array of feeders. I got a really
good look at him with naked eye and binoculars before he took off. So I feel
very confident that's what I saw. I saw others saw this bird in Marymoor and
I know he's not really rare, so wouldn't you say my sighting is correct? At
some point, even though I'm a newbie I get to make a call and claim I saw
something fairly cool, don't I? I am very confident I saw this bird.



It's really funny how one yellow bird can make your whole day!



MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE

I don't know how controversial this sighting is. It seems fairly rare in our
area (West Seattle) and I could not find recent sightings on eBird.



There were two I spotted on Wednesday, and they were regular visitors that
day. The eye coloring was distinctive, the pattern on the head was
distinctive, I got good looks about 5 different times. The only possible
other explanation was somehow a Black-capped was molting on the head in such
a way to produce that white stripe above the eye? But could that happen to
different distinct birds? I don't think so. But the eye/head pattern was
clearly there, on both of them. They loved our fruit/suet feeder, but seemed
a bit skittish, waiting for other chickadees to leave before chowing down
and even then only for 30 seconds or so.



It looked DISTINCTLY like this, the gray back, the stripe above the eye and
the single black line across the eye:



http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/prodimages/MountainChickadee.jpg



One of the two returned just once on Thursday, as if to verify his existence
to me, just perching in plain view, letting me get the binoculars on him one
more time and then flying away. They have not returned since.



Is the sighting at all controversial or rare? Or in fact, at this time of
year it really isn't that uncommon to see? Do simple Black-capped sometimes
look like this to fool us maybe?



I noticed I can't even mark it on eBird for my area/zip code on eBird, so
clearly I am not supposed to see these? Or is this the time of year you can
get lucky and spot one or two?



Thanks again everyone and I love reading all the posts, it's amazing what
some of you see out there!



- Douglas, West Seattle

- douglas at snazel.com