May 7, 2004
Migration hotting up....
With just two days to go until my first 'big day', I was relieved to find that migration appears to be in full swing this morning. I recorded greater species diversity and larger numbers of birds at Willowbank than on any previous morning. This morning's totals are:
Acorn Woopecker - 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Bullock's Oriole - 4 (first sighting of this species here)
Black-headed Grosbeak - 3 (ditto)
Pac-slope Flycatcher - 3 (numbers slightly down)
Townsend's Warbler - 3
Warbling Vireo - 6+
Yellow Warbler - 5
Wilson's Warbler -5
Swainson's Thrush - 6
Western Tanager - 10+
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Black-chinned Hummingbird - 1
I also saw this damselfly, which I believe is a Vivid Dancer judging by the black triangles on the abdomen. Having a digital camera makes ID-ing these things a whole lot easier!
Slide Hill was a bit quieter, with the usual Tanagers, 2 Wilson's Warblers and another 2 Black-headed Grosbeaks, including this nice adult male:
I also managed a couple more shots of the resident White-tailed Kites:
What camera and optics are you using?
Posted by: Chet at May 8, 2004 1:19 AMNikon Coolpix 4300 held up to the 62mm Leica APO
spotting scope. I haven't bothered trying to get an adaptor as I like to look at the birds through the scope before I attempt to photograph them! Many of the pictures (e.g. the first grosbeak shot in this posting) are taken by holding the camera up to my bins (an ancient pair of Swarovski 10x42), which produces reasonable 'record shots'.