My New Warbler (50)

I was sitting on the patio Wednesday morning when a bird caught my eye. I don't remember what I had been doing. Maybe I was working and happened to glance up from my laptop. Or maybe I'd been stopped, daydreaming, having just eaten my slice of pumpernickel with goat butter. The bird was on the rocks in the southwest corner of my yard. House Sparrows show up there all the time, finding fallen thistle seeds from the sock feeder, and nibbling on berries that have dropped from the palm tree. I see a Bewick's Wren there often, and White Crowned Sparrows.

 


Myrtle warbler © Lester Rees
 

But something alerted me when I saw this bird, though I couldn't see her colors, couldn't tell until I picked up the binoculars she wasn't one of the usual suspects. Oh, but what fun when I focused in and saw her. She was beautiful, with a yellow throat and other spots of yellow on her body that was shades of grey. She had a delicacy about her I admired, and she was kind enough to stay put while I got a good look at her. After she left, I leafed through my California bird book until I found her. Aside from the treat of watching the birds themselves, I get my biggest pleasure in this when I identify a new bird. I felt that way Wednesday, all happy and proud and satisfied, the puzzle solved. Ah, and grateful, too, for both the visit and the intuition that had be picking up my binoculars for a closer look.

[Editor's note: My warbler did indeed have a yellow throat---an Audubon's Yellow-Rumped Warbler and not the Myrtle you see here---but this east coast equivalent was the closest I could come to how mine looked.]