Hi Folks,

With a majority of my students taking their advanced placement exams today, I took a day off from work to see how many birds Elaine and I could tally in our one-acre suburban yard (Ferndale, northern AA Co.) from sunrise to sunset.  Our yard has a couple dozen mature pines, six large southern red oaks, and numerous other evergreen and decidous trees that are fairly attractive to migrants.

We were shooting for 50 species, and missed it by one.  We had 46 by 10:30 a.m. when we left to run some errands; made it up to 48 by 1:20 p.m. when an Osprey flew over, and that was it for the remainder of the day, until a White-throated Sparrow vocalized at dusk.  We had plenty of vultures, but hawks were just not coming our way today.  Nevertheless, this was our biggest yard day ever.

Highlights were a yard-high three species of gull, including a long-expected first yard record of GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL, a flyover subadult (3d summer?), and ten species of warbler, including first-of-year MAGNOLIA and CHESTNUT-SIDED (both digiscoped), and our first yard record of PROTHONOTARY WARBLER, singing robustly.  Also, a shorebird that wisked by, about the size of a Dunlin, was not identified, but would have been new for the yard if ID'd.  A FOY singing male SCARLET TANAGER was a show-stopper, allowing some decent digiscopes.

While the new yard birds and all the warblers were quite special, the real highlight for me was a male and female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK on the feeder together.  I was able to digiscope both birds separately.  I found the female to be as attractive as the male, with her bold face stripes, earthy colors, and bright yellow coloration that spilled from the underwings onto the flanks, easily visible as the bird maneuvered around the feeders.  I had never noticed this color on a female before.

It's been the most incredible Spring migration in my memory.  Our yard year list now stands at 96, 19 species ahead of last year's total by this date.

Good (yard) birding.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale