Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Friday, August 13, 2010

A SURPRISE VISITOR TO MY GARDEN

Western Tanager

As I walked out the front door I heard a bird call which was unfamiliar, so I started to look up into the trees. I spotted a yellow bird, one larger than the goldfinches hanging out in the yard, one I had never seen before. I rushed back indoors grabbed up my camera ready to take the perfect shot. Of course when I very cautiously went back outside, the bird was not where I last saw it. I stood very still and scanned all the surrounding trees, then saw the bird way up in the branches of a plum tree. I very slowly edged my way closer all the while readying the camera for a close up shot, and managed to snap just one before the bird flew off.
Back indoors I opened my "Birds of Washington State" book and looked for a yellow bird of about the same size of the one I had photographed. I was surprised to see a number of bird which looked similar, but had to look carefully at the photo to distinguish all coloring and markings on the bird, checking against the description in the book.

ID: stout orangy bill - check
dark eyes - check
bluish gray legs - check

Yes indeed, I am 99.9% sure I have I have correctly identified the visitor to my garden.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Nicely done!

meemsnyc said...

What a beautiful visitor!

Jester said...

Nice Job!!!! By any chance do you parcipate in the Great American Bird search? Of course at the moment I don'r remember when exactly its done, but its about a week long, you log in all the birds you see, time date & such to help with recordind of bird migrations etc. If I wasn't procrastinating about doing my homewrok, I would get it for you, you would probably enjoy it!

BernieH said...

What a lovely little bird ... you managed to get a great shot! Isn't it marvellous when you spot an unfamiliar bird in the garden ... it feels like a great privilege!!

Lisa said...

Wonderful photograph.

I'll bet you were puzzling over warblers...so confusing!

Town Mouse said...

Very cool! I have some much trouble photographing anything that flies -- great shot.

Noel Morata said...

aloha,

what a nice visitor and so wonderfully photographed.

RURAL said...

It is always exciting when you get a unfamiliar visitor of the feathered kind.

He is beautiful.

Jen

dining room table said...

It is so amazing that you have a beautiful visitor in your garden. It is just mean that your garden is so wonderful and peaceful. The amazing part of this is how you capture that image.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jennifer. I admire your stealth commitment to finding and photographing your feathered visitor. What a beauty he is. I hope he was just on a stakeout for goodies and will be back with his mate and maybe even set up residence. Wouldn't that be a blessing.

Laura said...

I never catch those moments! Great job!