FOS Kingbird and an Odd Couple -- 24 March 2009

One of my favorite things about spring is the anticipation of new bird arrivals from their wintering grounds. Swainson’s hawks, orioles, and others are cool, but for me, the bird that means spring at Kokopelli WA is the western kingbird. Unfortunately, I was not at work on the day (Friday the 20th) the first kingbird was spotted here, but I saw one on Monday the 23rd that I was able to snap a few crummy pics of. Since nobody told me that there had been any seen here yet, I still had the excitement of thinking this was the first. You can imagine my disappointment to find out I was only second. Crushing. That same day I saw two more.

They are a really beautiful bird with their gray uppers and lemon yellow underneath. Also distinctive is their black tail with fine white edging on the outer tail feathers. They are in the same family as the Say’s phoebe that I profiled here, and as I mentioned, they are rarely seen at Kokopelli on the same day. I believe our last phoebe sighting was on March 19th, so we only missed by one day this year!

I also liked this photo of a double crested cormorant and friend (red-eared slider). Usually you don’t see the crests on these birds, but in the breeding season you can spot them. This day was particularly windy, so the tufts were blowing around like a balding guy with a bad comb-over. I kept waiting for him to slick them back.