Mini-bursts

 Every now and then, I come upon a cluster of multi-species pockets of small birds. Every time, I think - "This is it!"

 Getting all excited, I go to check out some of the hot spots, and I find nothing. The mini-bursts of chickadees, sparrows and small numbers of warblers are truly motivating, but there don't seem to be any unusual migrants among them.

 I keep looking and looking, and by doing so, I am getting more opportunity to see the common birds around us.

 The Swamp Sparrows are showing up in all sorts of shades and plumage. It is really amazing how different they can look from the mature bird with the bright red head.

 There are some areas that are teeming with sparrows. A drive up Power's Road can flush as many as 30 birds. Cape Spear has large numbers of Savannah Sparrows. And so the story goes, sparrows are everywhere.

 It was just yesterday when I was trying to scan each sparrow at Cape Spear to see if there might be anything different among them. I saw what I thought could have been a Lapland Longspur. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to relocate it but without success.

 Yellow Warblers are scarce among grouping warblers. It seems they are still staying close to their breeding grounds.

It is almost a sure thing to see a Yellow-rumped Warbler no matter where I look. However, they are not plentiful either.
Now, it seems to me that with all of the wind we have had this spring and summer, we should have one bird of every species on earth land on this island. Where are they? Well, maybe every time we got a strong Nor'easter driving birds up from the east coast, we quickly got a powerful Sou'wester to drive the birds right back where they came from:(
And so went the same wind pattern for four months now. I have visions of so many rare birds just catching sight of "The Rock," when all of a sudden the wind yanks them around and sends them in another direction.

In the meantime, I have seen lots of butterflies - four commas yesterday. I am studying the pictures and will share later.