Hello,
This morning I was talking on the phone from my apartment in Hilliard with a
life insurance salesman, trying to figure out the best way to insure my wife
and 18-month-old son in case I croak.  That guy still has no idea why, in
the middle of the conversation, I suddenly became profoundly inattentive to
his questions and comments!!  :)  He wouldn't understand why an
Orange-crowned Warbler just outside your window would be such a distraction,
so I just tried to listen with half my brain and watch the bird with the
other half (it didn't work!).  Anyways, the bird won my attention...the
guy gave up and said he'd call back later.

So in the middle of this winter snowstorm, a beautiful little Orange-crowned
Warbler alit in a pine tree just 10 feet from my window and was quite perky
in scouring the tree for food.  I got excellent looks at her (I think it
was a 1st winter female Taiga form, based on Sibley, but with a little more
yellow.  The head was definitely much grayer than the rest of the body,
which I'm not used to from the O-c Warblers I used to see in Utah, where
I've lived up until 6 months ago).  It definitely had NO SIGN of any
wingbars, it had a pale supercilium, yellowish underparts faintly streaked
with olive on the breast, and bright yellow undertail coverts.  No white in
the tail either, and she was very cooperative in showing me that in many
acrobatic poses!  I took a bunch of pictures which show her fairly well
considering the falling snow, the intervening window, and my mere 10x
optical zoom on my Canon Powershot S1IS digital camera.  I don't know the
best way to post these, so if you want to see them, just let me know and
I'll email them to you.  The bird eventually moved on after feeding for
about 20 minutes in the same tree, so I'm not sure what the chances are of
finding it again, but I'm happy to give directions to anyone who wants to
try.

Sincerely,
Nate Nye
Hilliard, OH

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