This is a collection of images from June, none of which has had a posting of its own. Curiously, there are no mammals. Although I saw mammals, none of them produced interesting pictures.
The first shore bird to arrive each year is normally the killdeer, which usually can be seen as early as mid March. Strangely, the first one I saw this year didn’t appear until mid June.
A just fledged dipper chick sits on a log overlooking the creek. It is still too young to feed itself and desperately wants a parent to come along with some food.
With summer, redstarts have flowed into this region. This is a female.
A male Red-winged Blackbird flies past.
While a female Red-winged Blackbird prepares to fly.
The fact that this small creature looks rather like a wasp is a ruse to discourage a bird from eating it. It is actually a harmless little hoverfly collecting pollen from a daisy.
A Bank Swallow leaves its cavity, having fed its chicks, which are, as yet, not visible.
A male Northern Flicker (red-shafted) flies past.
A crab spider waits patiently on a daisy for a meal to arrive in the form of a fly or ant.
A female Common Yellowthroat flits through the brush looking for insects.
The male Common Yellowthroat reveals how the bird was named.
Meow!
As does the Common Yellowthroat, the Warbling Vireo searches for insects to eat.
The Osprey has a blind spot when it comes to property rights. It regularly builds its nest on human-built structures, but then complains bitterly when humans happen to pass by. Its mantra seems to be, if I am here, it is mine.
Love them all, but expecially the bat-swallow! Yesterday a small flock of Evening Grosbeak surprised me by flying around in the trees behind the house. I only knew what they were when one sat on the corner of the metal roof a few seconds. Meanwhile, when we rolled down our upstairs outer blind to keep the house cool one day, there was a bat sleeping right in the middle of it. When the sun got to that part of the house, the bat left. I’ve often seen my cats looking up to the top of that window, over the past couple of years, so I suspected a bat, but had never seen anything.
Hi Alistair
Splendid photo gallery!
I wonder if your female Common Yellowthroat couldn’t rather be an Empidonax Flycatcher of some sort, perhaps a Least? Note the large, somewhat blocky head, the conspicuous eye ring and the black legs.
Take care
Trevor
Trevor, hmmm, possibly. It lacks the strong wingbars of the Least. The eye ring seems compatible with the yellowthroat as does the yellow belly. The “blocky” head shape seems more like a flycatcher. Cornell Lab’s Merlin thinks it is a Dusky Flycatcher, but, to my eye, the wingbars and belly are wrong for that. It was hanging out with the male yellowthroat shown, but as you say, the legs are wrong. Well, who knows?