Eastern Phoebe, Calliope Hummingbird, Clay-coloured Sparrow (20140514) Some more first fo the year birds.

Tim had selected the Weaselhead for our walk today. I arrived @ 7:00 and got a bit of an earlier start. It was nice to have the park mostly to myself.  I headed out to see if I could find the Eastern Phoebe that annually nests around one of the foot bridges. I was astounded to find the bird immediately, singing up a storm.

 These are my best images yet of this little bird. A little bit closer view.

It was interesting to watch the female Goldeneyes fighting over this perch. One would hold the location for a bit then the other would fly in and take over the "post"!

The male goldeneye is a very difficult bird to getr a good quality "eye" shot, and as such I was pleased with this result as it has a good sharp eye even though the bird is shaking its head:)

I thought I would throw in a third shot of the morning "star". This shows the pale yellow of the belly of this bird.

Meeting up with Tim, we were able to spy this little Clay-coloured Sparrow, the first of the year for me, and him.

We also found the Phoebe for Tim. He had spotted a drumming grouse that we visited, but no one was home. He also ran into Dan who mentioned he had a very brief encounter with a hummingbird. We were able to find the bird. A calliope, the first of the season!

 As these are very small birds and he was pretty flighty we did not spend much time with him. here is a second image.

On our way back to the parking lot we spend about 5 minutes with little park wanderer. It seemed intent on feeding on a section of the trail near the hummer.

Our last "new capture" of the year and this trip is this blue azure butterfly. These units are only about one inch tall.

I'll wrap up this post here with 4 new critters for this years list. As you can see we had phenominal light which helps in achieving good results. Get out to one of your city parks soon and see all the new stuff appearing!
Turbo