Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Northern Mockingbird, and a Yellow-throated Warbler

Red Bellied Woodpecker

This morning was a drizzly morning and I left for work a little later than normal, so I almost decided not to go birding around my office parking lot.  But the rain cleared, and thought perhaps some new birds would come in with the weather.  So I took a little bit of time (only about 25 minutes) to walk around.  I heard many birds, but few wanted to come out and play.  Eventually, I gave myself the "all birds are equal" speech, and I resigned myself to photographing the birds I normally don't pay much attention to.  I did see a Red-bellied Woodpecker that perched itself on a light post and proceeded to drum on it like it was a tree--first time I've seen that.

Northern Mockingbird

Later I saw a Northern Mockingbird fly down and grab a tasty morsel.  He then found a concrete perch and proceeded to cut it into pieces, and then it flew off.  I wonder if it was preparing to feed its young.

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

I did have one sighting I was proud of;  I found a Yellow-throated Warbler, and that would have been the highlight of my morning if he would have come anywhere near me.  He was high in a tree, and he rarely showed himself.  I took perhaps 100 pictures of him hoping to catch him in the open.  I did get one terribly cluttered photo of him, and I normally wouldn't even show this, but I guess I'm in the mood to let you see one of my awful photos that I worked very hard to get.

Yellow-throated Warbler

I also saw two Killdeer flyovers, so that raised my total in this patch to 64 species.  Here's a list of the 17 species I saw/heard this morning.

Mallard x Mottled Duck (hybrid) 4
Common Gallinule 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 3
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
Cedar Waxwing 50
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 1