Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Happy 226th Birthday Mr. Audubon!

Don't you love it when a bird's name is sooooooo descriptive. Of course, this is a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. But he also has yellow shoulders and, if you look really closely at the second photo, you can see a hint of a yellow crown.

I hope the sighting of my first warbler of the Spring is a sign that Spring is actually here.

Migration 2011: Early April

A sample of the birds that are currently coming through Chicago during the 2011 Migration:

Clockwise from top left: Eastern Phoebe, Brown Thrasher,

American Goldfinch (in its Motley Phase of Color Transition),

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, a hungry Black Capped Chickadee, Hermit Thrush

Loony Tunes

I can't believe this Loon let me take so many photos of it swimming around a channel off Lake Michigan. That is, until another Loon arrived and in typical Loon fashion bellowed (seriously it was LOUD - perhaps because of an echo effect from the channel and because it, too, was quite close)

"Watch out for the camera"

Both loons, then, dove under and were next seen at the farrrrrrrrr end of the channel swimming further away from the nosy camera lens.