A Christmas Bird

Common Yellowthroat

Warblers make for tough IDs. They change plumage from bright to dull between spring and fall...or at least some of them do. Males are often glowing rock stars while females are drab as dirt. They hybridize sometimes, in the shadowy alleys behind the trees and bushes. Their kids are odd. Really, they are worse than Indigo Buntings for sporting a dozen different looks over the course of the year.

Even experts argue over them often.

Thus this fall, during migration, when our yards and fields were graced with gazillions of them, I struggled.

And struggled. I saw life birds, almost daily, as I learned to recognize Blue-winged from Tennessee and sorted the myriad Common Yellowthroats in all their variations from everybody else that looked just the same...only different.

One day, out in the foggy morning, I saw a Connecticut Warbler. Well, actually I saw two, but more about that later. My bird was almost like a Mourning Warbler, only different. And almost like a Common Yellowthroat, only different. Saw it, couldn't photograph it, shared it on an eBird list.....

And then deleted it. The bird was right. Greyish head. Yellowish belly. Bright eye ring. However, similar birds were causing excitement among better birders down in the  Big Apple and all.

Who was I to think that I saw such a bird right in the bushes next to the driveway?

And then there was the green warbler in the heifer barnyard. It sat there, back turned towards me, fat, happy, and the prettiest off-green you could imagine. I got the binoculars on it for mere seconds, but there was no mistaking that it was something different...and cool....Never figured out just what it was though.

Fast forward to Christmas. Besides Herkimer Diamonds and tools, foodstuffs (they know me, don't they?) and my amazing lamp, people gave me birding things. Suet blocks, fancy seed concoctions, all sorts of goodies......I am smiling even now, just thinking of them.

And The Warbler Guide. I wanted that book so badly and it made me really happy to find it under the tree so to speak. I put it next to my chair and every night I read a few birds. Peer at plumage. Stare at stories, songs, and photos.

Fat, green, and visiting our barnyard last fall

The other night there it was...the green bird in all its glory, just like the one we had in the barnyard, plump, pretty, and a Connecticut Warbler, all day long.

I know I'm gonna love this book.....

Now, if only these pests would migrate south and leave the birdseed for the northern birds