Lincoln's Sparrow at home.

  For the second time in a week I worked  two shifts in a day.  Only had about ten minutes to sit in the yard today but in that short time I was able to get some photos of a Lincoln's Sparrow.  It's only the second Lincoln's I've ever had in the yard.

  At work yesterday I photographed a couple of Trumpeter Swans

  Finally was able to get a decent shot of a Gray Catbird.

Lesser Yellowlegs

More Birds at Work

  My self-assigned project for the year to photograph 100 species of birds from my place of employment needs a revision.  I've already reached the goal (although some species deserve higher quality photos) and have observed 113.  I've added 28 birds to the list since last Wednesday.  Here photos taken since Saturday May 3.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Virginia Rail

Hooded Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Tree Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

House Wren

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Palm Warbler

Hermit Thrush

Another Nashville

Chipping Sparrow

  After extensive searches on Sunday and Monday the Worm-eating Warbler has not been since Saturday.

Erie Birds, featuring Worm-eating Warbler

Here are some birds seen the past two days at the Whiting Plant in Erie.  Don't have time to elaborate.  Except that the Worm-eating Warbler was about 100 yds north of the path that starts at the end of Erie Rd. Not on public property but nonetheless in the area.

Worm-eating Warbler?

Looner Mission

  Up until this morning my one day record for Common Loons flying over my yard was 11.  This morning I had that by 7:05 AM and proceeded to get 24 more before 10 o'clock.  The 35 loons were more than I had ever counted for an entire spring.  Previous record was 30 in 2011.  They flew over as singles, pairs and a group each of 4,5 and 6.

5 of the group of 6

Close-up of birds in the previous photo.

4 of the group of 5

Close-up of above birds

  If you read my previous post about the four flight paths that the Loons take over my yard,  32 of the 35 were on either path B or C.  Paths A and D had one each and the remaining bird was heading north to south in a reverse migration direction.

   I've had a few decent birds on the ground in my yard over the past few days

Brown  Thrasher

   I see Mallards fly over quite often but this is only the second time one has landed.

Common Loon on Saturday

 Either a Melanistic or filthy House Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

  Back on April 18, I saw the disk of the Sun veiled behind a thin spot in the heavy overcast.  I knew its surface was loaded with sunspots so I took a few photos to try to capture them.

   Here is an image that appeared on spaceweather.com's website that day.  It was taken from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager.  The Observatory is in orbit around the Earth.

Moonrise at dawn on Sunday