Weekend recap and a new lifer

This weekend was rather bird intensive, so I'll get right to it. On Saturday morning, I went outside and heard a very buzzy warbler-like noise amongst the usual birdsounds in the backyard. I looked around and lo and behold, I saw my first palm warbler! He was bobbing his tail up and down like crazy, and the yellow patch on his underparts was really bright. The streaking on his chest was faint but obvious. Wow! I had my camera but I was too slow (and the light was too terrible) to get a better picture than this:

Still, I was pretty certain of my ID, and I confirmed it when I went back to this Birdchick post and saw her palm warbler. My bird looked just like the one Birdchick was holding. Whoot! My first positive warbler ID in my yard, and my first fall warbler ID, and a lifer! This excitement is really contributing to my mounting level of geeked-uppedness for the Cape May Autumn Weekend and First Birding Bloggers Conference. I can hardly believe it's already October; just four short weeks and I'll be in New Jersey, birding it up with other birders and bloggers, probably freezing my tail off, and (I hope) seeing tons of warbler action!

I also caught this little song sparrow:


and this crazy downy woodpecker pecking on the front corner of our house!

Clawsie was sitting in the window underneath, quite upset at the ruckus (which really wasn't that loud) and trying to look out the window and up at the bird. These pics were taken from the porch; check out this supreme disapproval:

I also paid a visit to the duck pond near PSU and caught this little bunch of mallards benefitting from a kind man who was feeding them just before I arrived:

And I finally got a pic of this Canada goose whose wings seem to be all wrong:

I've seen this goose every time I've gone to the pond, as well as another one who's only bad on one side. I've never seen these birds fly, even a short distance. What's wrong with them? What happened to their wings? They look all chewed up, and they always stick out like that.

So happy to finally have seen a palm warbler. Now if I can just get over this head cold....