Towheeblog

Arriving from the south, Audubon’s Warblers found our feeders this morning.  All winter we’ve had one little Auddie and a small posse of myrtles.  Today the ratio reversed and now the bright colored Audubon;s out-number the drabber myrtles.
Here is a gallery of the newly arrived warblers in their bold spring finery.  They have increased the colorfulness of our garden avifauna by about 150 points…beyond anything a Bushtit or junco or House Sparrow can ever aspire to.

Note in the next-to-last image how he leans down so agilely, then look closely…those black lines down the back are actually tightly-packed rows of small black smudges.  We have few enough warblers here on the Pacific Slope compared to the eastern U.S. so I think we have to glory in the beauty where we find it.  Probably none of us will be flying off to Magee Marsh in Ohio this year to see thirty or more species in May.  Let’s really soak up the bright local guys.