Small mysteries resolved - and a new bird encountered in the chaparral

Vermivora celata. Image is from Las Pilitas: http://www.laspilitas.com/images/grid24_18/5614/California_birds/Wood_warblers/Orange-warbler/p1040658-Orange-crowned-warbler.jpg

I'm pretty stoked! It's a beginning birder sort of stokedness... Sitting outside in the mornings, I watch and listen. I sit in the garden, at the top of the chaparral slope. Lately I've been wondering: what's that warbling, descending in about a major or minor third, repeating. And what's that little olive green bird?

It follows the bushtits, gleaning insects from the underside of leaves and crevices in the shrubs. I have photos of the bushtits, but not the little olive bird. I took these the other day while sitting in the same spot. They move fast and acrobatically - so it's hard to get photos of them, even though there are at least thirty in a flock. They pass over the chaparral shrubs like a softly twittering cloud:

Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus

Bushtit on manzanita

Bushtit on Toyon

Cotton ball - no wait - Bushtit! on toyon

Bushtit on coyote brush

Sweet little bushtit

I was thinking: Maybe the warble is a junco with an interesting change of pitch? Maybe the green bird is a warbling vireo?

Not till I asked Randy Morgan, experienced birder and legendary naturalist, while on a recent field trip did I get ahead in my search. Olive green, I told him, with a pale eyebrow marking:

"Oh - Could be an orange crowned warbler," he said.

"'Twas not orange," said I.

"Well, you wouldn't actually see the orange!" quoth he.

"Well, then... how is a person to know?
" I wondered.

But today I saw not only the little green bird and saw him open his beak and go (using the sol-fa notation) "Meee-Doh" over and over ---- But also I SAW the orange crown!  Orange crowned warbler, Vermivora celata! What a little beauty! How dare they call him "drab!"


I just love it when these frustrating little mysteries are so wonderfully resolved. And now when I hear that descending warble I know - oh, he's just down the hill there. Sigh of pleasure!