Month: December 2008

This Fall I published a picture of an unidentified bird, though I think I ventured a couple of guesses, hoping that a reader might have more knowledge than I did.

Shortly after that I was on a web site and knew immediately that the bird that they identified as a Yellow-Rumped Warbler was the bird that I had been unable to identify:

Of course, in Spring I included several shots of Yellow-Rumped Warblers, the first time I’d ever managed to get a shot of one before.

It’s hard for me to believe that these could be the same bird, but apparently they are. The one on the top is in it’s winter, non-breeding, colors while the one on the bottom is all dressed up to catch a mate.

Small wonder I have so much trouble identifying birds from birding books, and why more than a few times I’ve just plain been wrong when identifying them.

It’s been too wet and too cloudy to get out for any new pictures, so here’s a shot from last week of a fairly rare, but apparently increasingly common, Eurasian Widgeon.

I found it at Titlow last year, too, so I’m assuming it’s the same one that spent last winter there, though I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.

Since I’ve been inside most of the last four days, I even found some time to play around with it in Photoshop.

Those who’ve been visiting for a while will probably remember my fascination with Cormorants, a bird that’s apparently widely reviled. I haven’t seen many this summer, but they finally seem to be returning in larger numbers. I caught this picture at Steilacoom,

and was struck by the complex pattern of the wing-feathers.