A welcome visitor to our deck!
This is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and although we are well within this bird’s spring and summer range and we do have a habitat it likes – brushy woods and water – it is rare that we see or hear one in our yard. And here is one saying “Howdy-do!” to us right on our deck. Flitting all around and moving its tail in that scissors-like fashion – which is such a common behavior of this bird. Those outer white tail feathers flashed! And we were sitting right there. Cleon took this photo, and you cannot imagine how slowly and carefully he raised his phone. These are such flitty, excitable birds, and we were both sure he would scare this gnatcatcher off. But the bird ignored us – two people sitting still as statues, hardly breathing, with the only movement being a cell phone slowly being raised. We only saw it this time – a late afternoon. It could have been migrating through. As we always do – we wished it a long, successful life and a great trip!