[EBB Sightings] this morning at jewel lake

Dear Birders:

I just returned from a cool-- almost chilly -- two hours of birding with Emilie Strauss at Jewel Lake.  On my hill it's already 81 degrees at 10 am.

It was a wonderfully 'birdy' morning beginning with the Winter Wren Emilie spotted in the brush next to lawn at the parking lot.  We worked our way along the Pack Rat Trail where the live oaks were alive with warblers (Wilson's, yellow, orange-crowned, Townsend's) mixed in with a number Warbling Vireos, and the bushtits and chickadees we think of as the local hosts.  We heard one begging fledling Sharp-shinned Hawk while in the distance we heard a Red-shouldered Hawk calling.  We both heard and saw a Harris Woodpecker. The highlight for me was a lingering, close-up view in good light of a Willow Flycatcher enhanced by Emilie pointing out what to look for.
 
The Swainson's Thrush is still in summer residence and Wilson's Warblers are singing and 'chitting' while all the other warblers are mostly silent.

Along with all the other species you expect to hear or see in every season, it was an altogther delightful morning enhanced by the presence of such a sterling companion.

--Phila Rogers