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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana |
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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana |
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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana House Sparrow Passer domesticus |
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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana |
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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana |
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| Western Tanager Piranga ludoviciana |
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| New entry in Dan's legendary bird diary from the 80s... |
Went to re-twitch the Western Tanager with Dan last Friday. It’s been sighted again in a Lachine backyard after it went dark for a while during a cold snap.
When we got to the backyard (So many thanks to the homeowner for letting birders use the back porch!), there were no other birders there. Not a good sign. We waited, and while the feeders were quite busy with the regular suspects (as well as Song and White-throated Sparrows), no Western Tanager. We loitered long, as the sun dipped below the embankment and the shadows grew long and purple.
“Maybe you can call your blog post Double Dip,” Dan suggested.
“Yeah, that would work,” I mumbled, and made toe fists to ward off the frostbite that already lurked in my boots.
We were both on the verge of saying something like ‘Well, I guess let’s give it five more minutes.’
Then a bird materialized in the bushes behind the feeder and I got my bins up. I saw a yellow bird with a reddish head. I stopped breathing so abruptly I may have been clinically dead for a moment.
“There he isssss,” I scream-whispered.
We ooohed and ahhhhhed for a good 15 minutes as the rare west-coast bird (which should be in Mexico this time of year) went about its leisurely circuit of the various feeders and heated bird bath. I got some grainy-ass record shots (cranked up the ISO in the gloom of dusk) and then we headed off for a fat man’s pillow of poutine. Western Tanager, huzzah!
