Many Arrivals, Few Photos

I stepped out onto the deck this morning and into spring migration, finally. Up until today, we'd had a handful of spring arrivals--one or two a day. This morning eleven species arrived, including: scarlet tanager, Nashville, prairie, Tennessee warbler, common yellowthroat, cliff swallow, Savannah sparrow, blue-headed vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, Baltimore oriole, and great crested flycatcher.

Though there were tons of birds and the light was perfect, few of the birds were very cooperative. I was only able to digiscope one of the new arrivals (actually a species that just passing through), the Savannah sparrow.

Savannah sparrow, eating dandelion seeds.

Some of our regulars were more cooperative for me this morning.

It's pretty tough to get a digiscope photo of a warbler, but this guy (a yellow-rumped warbler) was singing his heart out to impress the ladies, so he was sitting tight.

On our farm this translates to: "Uh, You got any more of that suet dough inside the house?"

Note how my digiscoping technique ensures that the branch and the cardinal's feet are in perfect focus.