Pelicans, O-c Warbler, hybrid sapsucker and yard snipe

[Lisa Millbank]

Last week, while working in the yard, I heard a flock of Cackling Geese and almost ignored them as I was concentrating on what I was doing.  I'm glad I looked up, because there was a silent flock of about 40 American White Pelicans flying alongside the cacklers.

An Orange-crowned Warbler was foraging among the herbs in the garden, but I wasn't able to get a very good photo.  We've never had a wintering Orange-crown around here before, although every year someone locally seems to have one as a regular visitor to their suet.  It was nice, but less of a surprise, to see a Townsend's Warbler in the neighbor's pine.

There's been an apparent hybrid Red-breasted x Red-naped Sapsucker visiting our plum tree.  The tree is covered with sapsucker wells (which may be the best reason to keep that tree, since we don't really care for the sour plums it produces).  Last year at about this time, there was another hybrid sapsucker down the road at Cheldelin Middle School, but this one is clearly a different bird with more subtle Red-naped characteristics, such as the patch of dark feathers on the breast, but no white "eyebrow" like last year's bird had.

A Wilson's Snipe visited our patio today.  The snipe ran over to a tarp-covered pile of finished compost and stood there while we watched.  We hear them calling sometimes, especially at dusk, as they go to and from the flooded fields around here.  But we've never seen one land in the yard before.

Lisa Millbank