Wow, I've Already Seen A Red Face Warbler

As I’m working on building my birding life list, obviously I’d like to get out with my camera and experience the thrill of photographing birds I’ve never seen before as much as possible.

Red Faced Warbler, Garden Canyon AZ

But I also have literally thousands of previous unedited images sitting in some of my portable hard drives … and when I lived here in Arizona the first time (2014-2017) I was out with my camera 4 or 5 days a week. Just doing the math, it seems possible I’ve got some good stuff hiding not quite in plain sight.

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The Red Faced Warbler is one of those birds that I’ve seen pop up in other people’s posts or notes and thought:

“Man, I’d like to see one of those in person someday.”

As it turns out, I already have … in Garden Canyon on Fort Huachuca, in June of 2023. The image I captured was pretty good too. Not sure I why I hadn’t already edited and shared it … let alone remembered I’d taken it.

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In that same folder I also found this image of an Hepatic Tanager.

Hepatic Tanager, Ramsey Canyon, AZ

This is a bird that I was at least aware I had seen in the past. But I didn’t realize I already had a pretty good picture of one sitting on my hard drive.

Now I’m wondering what else may be lurking in my unedited files.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m still getting out with my camera as often as possible. But lately I’ve only been encountering birds I already have plenty of pictures of.

A pair of curved billed thrashers

A pair of mating House Sparrows

Two for the price of one female vermilion flycatchers.

And of course, the nearby male

Hopefully next time I write a new post in this birding category it will be to report getting a picture of a bird I’ve never seen before. But in the meantime I’m happy enough to just get out in nature with my camera as often as possible.

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How about you?

Have you seen/photographed anything new or interesting lately?

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Til Next time,