Welcoming the Spring Migrants: Ash-Throated Flycatcher on the Tuolumne River

I love traveling, and I've been a lot of places in the last few months, but for me it always comes back to the home turf, and walks along our gentle stretch of the Tuolumne River as it flows through Waterford. Our modest river trail will never be a world destination (it passes by the water treatment plant, for heaven's sake), but it has some beautiful stretches through the riparian habitat, and is proving to be a rich environment for wildlife. In the past few days I've seen river otters, red foxes, lizards, and many, many birds. We passed a milestone this week. Other birders have been frequenting the trail, and they came up with six new first-time sightings, bring the total eBird roster to 100 separate species!

There have been some other "firsts" this week as the spring migrants begin showing up along the river. Yesterday I was out with Mrs. Geotripper on a section of the trail, and we saw a Western Kingbird, one of our spring arrivals, but I've been seeing them for several weeks now. But there was a second bird in the same tree that had a yellowish breast, but it looked different somehow, and I got one poor shot that gave me just enough hints to realize it was an Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens), another spring arrival. These flycatchers are a desert species who get their water from the foods that they eat. They winter in Mexico, and move north into the southwestern states and California for the summer to breed. They are cavity-nesters who compete for old woodpecker holes in dead trees, but will nest in many environments such as eaves and drain pipes, so they've done well with the spread of humans across the southwest.