Eastern Kingbird with unusual white eyebrow at Walden Ponds

[Jeff Parks]

Hey all -

I went to Walden Ponds this afternoon, since it looked like it was going to rain.  I figured the small birds would be less active if it started raining.  Rain never materialized, but it was good to be out anyway.

There were quite a number of Eastern Kingbirds, ten or twelve scattered around the area.  One of them I recognized from an earlier trip, it has an unusual white "eyebrow" on one side of the head.  When I saw it a couple of weeks ago, the white area was a little larger, giving it a funny, unbalanced look.  Today, the white area looked like an eyebrow, it was actually pretty well shaped.  I managed to get a few pictures of it, one is posted here.

Other birds of interest were a couple of Blue-Winged Teal on Cottonwood Marsh, several Wood Ducks, including a mom and seven babies on Cottonwood, and a group of five males on a back pond and a pair on the Duck Pond.  Ebird thought fifteen was a few too many ...  a few Cedar Waxwings, several Bullock's Orioles, a few Yellow-Breasted Chats, a Grey Catbird and a Common Yellowthroat rounded out the birds of interest. 

I also saw WAY too many of the Minnesota State Bird, the Hungry Mosquito.  I put on Deet about three times, and they were still biting me.  Time to move up to a little higher elevation for my walks ...

Good Birding -

Jeff Parks
Boulder