Thursday, May 17, 2007

Life(r) in the front yard

S. and I have been birders for quite a few years, so no matter what we do the rest of the year, mid-May is always exciting because it's when the bulk of the migrators pass through.

But old birdwatching hands that we are, we were still absolutely thrilled this evening when, just after supper, a Cape May warbler decided to have its own evening meal in our front-yard Prunus. Since we don't use any pesticides in our yard, the tree was presumably a veritable smorgasbord. At any rate, it stayed around for a good long while, long enough for me to get a few shots, which I include here for your viewing pleasure.

And yes, it was a lifer for both of us.


5 comments:

Rus Bowden said...

Hi Peter,

What a couple of terrific shots. I am very glad you posted. We're getting quite a few interesting visitors around here too. My sister and her husband next door keep all the books, and put out all the right feed, and their watching is a big part of their enjoying the back yard. I just need to get Micky to take some pictures and post them onto her dormant blog for us.

Yours,
Rus

Micky said...

Peter,

So glad I dropped by to see these wonderful pics. Looks like you've got all the right ingredients for a birdy bash.

Micky

petergarner said...

Rus, Micky,

Glad you enjoyed!

Anonymous said...

Good pictures--very recognizable. The map shows the warbler in Florida but I don't think I've ever seen one. Carol

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Cape_May_Warbler_dtl.html#sound

petergarner said...

Hi Carol,

The map shows that Florida is in the migration zone. It doesn't breed or winter in Florida, so unless you're looking for it at just the right time (my guess would be mid-to-late April), you wouldn't see it.

Thanks for the link to the Cornell site.