Halfway through May now, and warblers continue to appear. We've had a number of magnolia warblers this week. Here's one in flight.

Black-and-white warblers have been faithful customers over the past two weeks. And, because they're the most trusting of the warblers, you can actually get a decent picture of them. Here's one on my dogwood tree.

And finally, here's a picture that typifies the sub-par photography that's a feature, not to say bug, of this blog. But the combination of birds shown here is a little unusual: ovenbird (right) and catbird (left). Now, I ask you: what are the odds?

Today's tale of woe is how hard it is to get good photographs of birds. Here's example one:

This morning, I look out and see a flicker putting divots in my neighbor's yard. A good photo op, I say to myself, for a bird I've found difficult to photograph. The only problem -- and there's always some such problem -- is that there's a fence in the way. So I creep, creep, creep forward, hoping to get far enough up that I can get a photo over the fence. Unfortunately, I need to get pretty close, and just when I get close enough, the bird startles and flies off.

Here's example two, a black-throated green warbler (I think):

Birds in trees are always tough.

Solved

Thanks to the kind people at Mass Audubon, I'm now able to put a name to the mystery bird pictured in the previous post: a northern parula.

Warblers appear

After the hermit thrushes came and went -- in surprising numbers -- a bit of a migratory lull followed.  We had a few native sparrows, and some woodpeckers, but the wave of warblers had yet to hit.  Then, this past week, on the 27th of April, the first of them appeared, in the shape of a black-and-white warbler.  Catbirds are back, too -- a quartet at first, and now a lone settler.  A couple more days of nothing, then today, two more black-and-whites, along with an ovenbird (possibly), and a black-throated blue warbler (I think). Identification is often difficult with these skittish things up in the trees.  And sometimes, even when I get a halfway decent picture, I still can't identify the bird.  Case in point...

As the spring advances, more and more of the birds of summer make their appearance.  Most of these we'll only see once, as they pass through Somerville on their way to somewhere more propitious to nest.  Last week it was a battalion of hermit thrushes.  Most of those are gone now, except a few stragglers.  In their wake came the woodpeckers -- a yellow-bellied sapsucker making a quick transit high in the neighbor's trees, and the much more familiar downy woodpecker, a summer regular here.  We've also had a few of our native sparrows -- a song sparrow, I think, and maybe a fox sparrow.  Then this morning, a kinglet passed through, gleaning bugs among the branches.  Here is its portrait.

Spring is here

If winter is when the juncos come, spring is when they leave. And at this writing, on the 11th of April, the juncos, so numerous at the beginning of the month, have just about disappeared.  Moreover, they've begun to be replaced by the earliest of the spring migrants.  There's a wave of hermit thrushes passing through, and this morning I spotted an eastern phoebe, who seems a bit early to breakfast.  The red-tailed hawk who cruises our neighborhood is also back.

I love this time of year, when you might stick your head into the yard and see any of three dozen species that you won't see in Somerville at any other time of the year.  From now until the end of May, keep your eyes peeled for them.

Building the bird list

I've begun to put together the Somerville bird list.  Is this list definitive?  Well, it's a definitive list of birds I've seen in Somerville, at least.  It'll take me a few days to put up all the pictures I have, but in the meantime, have a look.