Hello Tweets,

Yesterday afternoon, a female/immature hummingbird visited our feeder. I grabbed my binoculars to take a closer look. It zoomed over to our blooming peonies, and I saw a green back. Then, I thought I saw orangey sides, and at that moment the hummer zipped away. Female Rufous? A RUHU would be a new yardbird.

30 minutes later, I heard a sound quite similar to a Rufous Hummingbird's wing trill at Ellis Pond. Now I'm keeping my eyes and ears open!

Also, I have seen at least 2 Hutton's Vireos and a dozen Townsend's Warblers at the corner of 45th and 90th just north of Ellis Pond. The vireos were hawking gnats from the clouds of them that always seem to cling to the top of conifers - surely the secret to how so many small songbirds like Yellow-rumped Warblers, kinglets and Hutton's Vireos are able to subsist in the Puget Sound winter.

The Cedar River mouth has a lot of gnat-covered conifers, as does the Lid Park on the Island; I have seen Yellow-rumps (Butterbutts) at both places, and the Palm Warbler at the Cedar River mouth. Maybe the hops vines on the bus-stop fence in the U District had lots of bugs hiding in it last year?

Good birding, Joshua Glant

Mercer Island, WA

Josh.n.glant at gmail.com