Since it wasn't actually raining today I figured I would revisit the Guild Inn grounds. The morning started fully overcast with a faint breeze and also a bit nippy at first. What concerned me the most was that the light level was low, too low for my old camera. I cranked the ISO to 800 but that comes with a considerable amount of pixel noise. I'm far more comfortable at ISO 400.
I immediately noticed that there were not as many Golden-crowned kinglets as there were on Tuesday. Moreover, there were almost no Yellow-rumped warblers. I saw only one. I was surprised to have spotted a single Pine warbler on my way back to the parking lot. It was right on the brink of the bluff. Couldn't get an unobstructed view from where I was standing and then it was gone. Oh well, maybe next time.
I saw many of the birds that I saw two days earlier: Eastern Towhee (M), Winter wren x2, Yellow-bellied sapsucker x 3, Northern flicker (many), Hermit thrush x 4, FOY Brown thrasher (singing), Brown creeper (few), GC kinglets (few), RC kinglets (few), about a hundred WT sparrows, and of course Downy, Hairy and Red-bellied WPs. The sun came out for about an hour so that I could reduce ISO to 400 and even 200 but that didn't last long and then everything darkened again. After I followed the thrasher around and couldn't get close I decided to just find a spot in the woods and sit on a log to let the birds come to me. I often do that. It didn't take long before a (the) thrasher showed up in dappled sunlight. I didn't move. As is often the case, not moving proved to be effective. The birds were spooked more easily when it was heavily overcast than when the sun came out.
