I found myself carless this morning on a glorious fall day. So I took my cup of coffee and my laptop outside to work from home. I was greeted by an Abert's towhee hopping around, looking all cute. Good morning, little friend!
Then I looked up and saw this flutter of white in my ornamental plum tree. Some little white and gray bird was preening and fluttering. Way too small to be a mockingbird. Too white to be anything else I could think of. I went inside to get my binoculars and my bird book, and came back to find it hopping around the grass with a friend. The friend was a white-crowned sparrow. The other was a mystery... until it moved its wings and gave me a peek at its little yellow rump.
It was a yellow-rumped warbler. The pictures in the bird book make this bird seem so colorful, with lots of contrast. I've learned to ignore the illustrations in the bird book and just look online. While some, especially the males, seem to have more contrast, I chose the picture above from Flickr, because it shows a much more subdued coloring. Really, I thought this was a smooth-looking gray bird with white underparts and a little streaking on its breast, until I got the binoculars out and could see more clearly. I think this is a female Audubon's Warbler. Hope she comes back to visit again!
