The Latest Arriving Tropical Migrant on the Tuolumne Parkway Trail: A Western Tanager

The colors remind me of tinted calendar pictures and postcards from the 1930s that I recalled seeing at my grandmother's house long ago. Back then, it was the very difficult problem of producing color photos of any kind. Today, it's what happens when you use a photo app to try and eliminate dark shadows from a digital photograph. But in any case today's photos show the latest arrival on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail from its winter home in the tropics: a Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana).

I admit I was feeling a tiny bit discouraged at the lack of any new migrants, since it had been a good two weeks since I had sighted some of the other "first of season" arrivals like the Bullock's and Hooded Orioles and the Ash-throated Flycatcher. I'm still watching out for Black-headed and Blue Grosbeaks, Lazuli Buntings, and a variety of flycatchers that should also be in the region by now. But today all those discouraging feeling were swept away. I had been walking for nearly two hours, and had seen a nice collection of different species, but I saw a flash of yellow in the upper parts of the last big oak tree along the trail. It took me several moments to locate it again, and I got a dozen really poor shots that would have served no purpose other than confirming my identification. Then I got a pair of half-decent shots aside from the dark shadows. After a moment it flew off, followed by another tanager! At that point I lost them.

If you are wondering about the original shots, here they are. You are welcome to judge which is actually better...