Welcoming back the common yellowthroats

I love too many types of birds to pick a favorite, but common yellowthroats are in the mix if you ask me to pick a handful of birds that bring me maximum joy. The yellowthroats began returning to New Jersey over the past couple of weeks, and this morning my birding friends and I got our best opportunities so far to photograph them out in the open.

Typically, we hear the yellowthroats for a week or two before we see them regularly. When they arrive, they typically stay inside the bushes and trees, out of sight to birders. We may catch a fleeting glimpse of them flitting amid the emerging tree leaves, such as the peek-a-boo view I got of one the other day, as shown in the photo atop this post.

This morning, though, they appeared to have decided as a group that they were comfortable enough to pop out of the brush and sing from tree branches and stalks at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm.

The yellowthroats weren’t the only yellow birds we got to see. American goldfinches also appeared to have received the “come out into the open” memo. Our bonus bird was a beautiful magnolia warbler that dashed about the canopy of trees above us at the entrance to the woods off the park’s central, dirt trail.

We also heard a grasshopper sparrow singing and got a quick look at it flying away. A photo of one of those will have to wait for another day. Meantime, I’m reveling in yellow and black.