Foam Lake Birding No. 153


FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 153
            It has been a while since the last article but various family events have kept me busy elsewhere.  Now, it is back to local birds. 
            With the plentiful moisture this spring and subsequent heat the vegetation is very lush providing birds with ideal habitat to raise their young.  At present we have House Sparrows, House wrens, Purple Martins, Robins and Yellow Warblers nesting in our yard with Brown Thrashers, Brewers Blackbirds, Chipping Sparrows, Grackles and Mourning Doves just a "stone's throw" away.  Some species, such as Robins, House Sparrows and Flickers, have fledglings already. 
            A pair of flickers and their four youngsters have been in our yard for a number of days now.  With the recent hot weather they have spent a lot of time at our bird bath drinking and bathing.  It was fun watching the young ones copying their parents' behavior.  It reminded me of little children hesitatingly entering a swimming pool for the first time.   After the bird bath they flew to the ground looking for their favourite food, ants.  What a nice way to get rid of troublesome pests.  As I mentioned in a previous article, "I do like Flickers". 
            This week I am featuring a bird, the Yellow Warbler, that I had covered before in Article No. 89.  As I had mentioned in that article the Yellow Warbler is the only warbler that can be commonly found in urban yards.  We have had their nests in our yard in the past and we have one again this year.  This year's nest is very close to our house only about a foot away from our dining room window.  Whenever we sit down for meals we can and do watch the parents busily feeding the young. It certainly provides us with quite a bit of entertainment. 
            Because of its vibrant yellow colour and cheerful song the Yellow Warbler has always been my summertime "happy bird" as it were.  Even in inclement weather its presence raises one's spirits.  So it is with this week's picture of a male drying himself off after one of our recent intermittent rain showers.