Newport Back Bay August 21, 2010

A few weeks ago I visited Newport Back Bay to take some morning shots. I was surprised at how crowded the one way road was, with the occasional car, streams of bicyclists, and teams of runners. Happily this didn't do much to detour the wildlife from going about Summer as usual.
I managed a few shots of this little fellow. You'd think the chirps would help to locate him, but they only helped me generalize an area I might see something. I mostly had to rely on glimpsing the tip of a moving reed and then followed it half down the stock, tricky when most stalks were obscured by several more reeds,







According to The "National Audubon Society Field Guide to California", he is a "Common Yellowthroat" bird (technically known as a "Geothlypis trichas") of the Wood Warbler Subfamily.
They are 5".
"Male upperparts and sides uniformly olive-brown; throat and chest yellow; midbelly white; black mask over forehead and cheeks; broad white line above mask. Female and imm. olive brown above; pale eye ring; throat yellow. Imm. male has blackish cheek. Feeds low; often raises tail at wren-like angle. VOICE Song: rollicking witchity-witchity-witchity-witch. Call: flat chep. HABITAT Riparian thickets, marshes, shrubs. RANGE Resident in c and s CA on Pacific slope; inland valleys. May-Sept.: n CA, valleys east of Sierras. Apr.-May, Aug.-Oct.: all CA."