Orange-crowned Warbler and Others

Orange-crowned Warbler along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

Orange-crowned Warbler along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

Orange-crowned Warbler along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

Orange-crowned Warbler along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

Orange-crowned Warbler along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

Louisiana Waterthrush along the Wissahickon. Photo by Ken Januski.

I do hate to crowd a post with photos like this. But my attempts with a watercolor sketch that combines a Louisiana Waterthrush and an Orange-crowned Warbler the other day upon first seeing them just didn't turn out. I just couldn't convince myself to show it.

But given that it seems to be a bit unusual to find an Orange-crowned Warbler at this time at this location I decided to go out again, this time bringing Jerene along. We started off by finding a Winter Wren and a Hermit Thrush but no Orange-crowned.

Thankfully we didn't give up. He eventually reappeared and I took upwards of 25 photos. The best are here. Since we were looking straight down at him most of the time the photos don't show everything that you might need to confirm the ID. Because of that I've tried to include photos that show pertinent parts of this bird we rarely see.

On the way back up the hill we saw warbler number five for 2014: two Palm Warblers. I don't think there's a more beautiful yellow in the American bird world than that of the Palm Warbler, though I'm also very partial to that of the Yellow-breasted Chat! Combined with the Pine, Louisiana Waterthrush, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers that we've seen you could say that spring finally, finally, finally has arrived.

In our yard the first buds of Bloodroot have poked their head up an inch or two. A very exciting two months lie ahead.