I was pleased to see my first Bushtits, not only for the year, but for weeks. I have been worrying quietly that some unseen virus or scourge had started to wipe out our local miniatures. They are our smallest Oregon songbird and I have not seen one in many weeks. Allthat changed in partial sunshine as a dense, twittery flock moved across the seed heads of star thistle and other dried weeds along the Bear Creek Greenway today.
Bushtit photo by May Woon.
LOCAL TRUMKPETERS BRING PHOTO CONTRIBUTIONS.
First from Orcas Island in the San Juans, Washington State. These pictures by Jim McDaniel of his maritime mutt, Megan, swimming to safety with her water toy. And she is ”hounded” by a closing semi-circle of Trumpeters.
This lower picture is an excellent shot of one of the two Jackson County Trumpeters, taken by fellow-birder Gary Schaffer. And he took this one as well:
I thought it was bushtits mobing my suet feeder but might have been Kinglets??? Must have been 20 – they moved so quick I couldn’t get a read on what they were.
By: Lynda Stevenson on January 8, 2009
at 3:05 pm
Most likely it was Bushtits in that number, definitely not Ruby-crowns and in Medford Bushtits far more likely than Golden-crowned Kinglets even in winter. Tail length is a good clue, the Bushtit’s length is over half tail.
By: atowhee on January 9, 2009
at 10:53 am
[...] The tiny, and the Trumpeters « Towheeblog [...]
By: Bushtit - Psaltriparus minimus | Birds of the World on February 5, 2009
at 6:02 pm