Sunday, October 27, 2013

Golden-crowned Kinglets!

Just 10 days earlier, I happened upon a little bird that I'd never seen before. This was at Hillside Cemetery in Northeast Minneapolis over my lunch break. It was a very tiny bird that moved incredibly quickly and often but it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen. It had a mostly white breast but I was catching glimpses of bright yellow on it's head. I assumed it was a Warbler of some kind. After several dozens of shots that came up with an empty branch, I began thinking to myself "what is the only other bird I know that moves this quickly?" A Ruby-crowned Kinglet was my answer. Then it hit me –there was another type of Kinglet! I looked him up on my phone right then and there and realized I was seeing a Golden-crowned Kinglet! I was so excited to have stumbled upon something new but my photos weren't too great. I even went back to the cemetery that evening after work, attempting to locate them again but no such luck. I never considered that I might see them at PLP but today I did. And even more exciting was that I ran into them several times today in different parts of the park! In the end I was able to get at least 2 post-able shots to share here, but this was 2 out of probably 50 shots I took. In the very brief instances that I've been able to see this new bird, I've decided that one clue you could go by to identify one is that they almost appear to have no neck. Their head seems to be almost part of their round little body, giving them a "chubby" appearance much more than any other bird I know. I've also learned that while both male and female have a bright yellow crown atop the head, only the male has an additional tiny little orange-red patch at the back of his crown, making his crown appear more of a rich orange all around. I was able to see that in at least 2 of the birds I saw today and you can just barely make it out in my first photo here. I was quite excited to get to see this bird for only the 2nd time ever –and especially excited to see it at PLP!
One more bird that is coming through now with the change in weather, is the Fox Sparrow. I became familiar with these only over the last couple of years but now I can pick them out easier than before. First and foremost they are noticeably larger than other sparrows. And since they often are among other Sparrow species, you can see the difference in size quite easily. They are also often colored a rich, rusty red, contrasting a lot against their bright white but speckled breast. This one was posing in the bright sun for me, making him appear even more distinctive than I would have previously thought. I've not heard this bird make too many sounds but upon looking it up I found they have quite a unique and beautiful voice. As I neared my vehicle back on the east side I caught a quick glimpse of a small bird land in some weeds just below me. I got off just one shot before he flew away and I ended up getting a pretty neat shot of a Song Sparrow. Though I definitely notice the return of Song Sparrows in the early spring, I've not paid particularly close attention to when they might leave. After just looking now at their range map, it seems both their summer and winter territory almost converge in southern Minnesota.

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