Tabor Times

As I recover from surgery and gradually regain my freedom, I find myself continually balancing birding with not overdoing it. Not an easy task. Especially during spring migration. Which is how I’ve ended up visiting Mt Tabor Park three times in one week.

Too much? Probably, but it’s also how I saw someone’s lost Gyrfalcon.

Say what?! Yep. More about that story in this news report here. The bird has not been refound and may still be heading north.

I’d been up at Tabor for the warblers, of which there’s been a nice mix.

And even a Nashville Warbler.

Busy looking for insects.

Show them how it’s done Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Nice. It’s such a thrill to see these bright colorful birds. Not just warblers, there was also my FOY Warbling Vireo.

And heaps of adorable Hermit Thrushes.

And everybody’s favorite to I.D. headless-tailless-silent flycatchers!

Okay, how about now.

Long primary projection (wings) in relation to the (notched) tail, small dark bill, and slight eye-ring = Hammond’s Flycatcher!

Compared to:

Peaked head, oval eye-ring, shorter wings, and yellow lower mandible, and luckily this one called its high-pitched hoo-WEET (ascending dog-whistle), confirming Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Every year it’s only slightly easier.

Besides finding migrants, it’s been amusing to see the resident birds building nests.

Oh hello there, Red-breasted Sapsucker.

And another cool find was a Brown Creeper nest behind the bark of a large, living Douglas-fir tree. It was fun watching it gather tiny fibers and even spiderwebs to build the nest.

I look forward to checking in on these guys in the upcoming weeks. There’s much to look forward to as spring healing continues.

Happy as a hummer catching insects.

Tweets and chirps,

Audrey