... and it just keep getting better.

Lellie, sapsuckers are only in Florida in the wintertime. You might have your woodpeckers reversed, as it is just now getting to be sapsucker season, while the downies are here year-round. Downies are smaller than sapsuckers and marked differently. You will often hear their high little call, where sapsuckers seem to me to be much quieter. Probably because birds don't usually call a lot in the winter, and that's when they are here. So it makes sense. The goldfinches will not be as colorful during the fall migration as they become during the spring one. They are done mating and will be molting out the yellow and turning grey for winter, as they head farther and farther south. You will see them with varying degrees of yellow splotching as they complete the molt. But just you wait until spring. The last two years, they have stayed in my yard until they were almost completely switched to the bright yellow and black breeding plumage. Then they headed north to nest. I'm attaching a link to a post on woodpecker ID's for you. You might find it helpful in determining which ones you have in your garden, and you can compare the downies with the sapsuckers. (SO glad the archives are back!) Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: Woodpeckers In The Garden

I concur on the blue-headed vireo and the phoebe but not the tennessee warbler. Tennessee warbler would not have the streaking on the breast, the undertail coverts are white and their eyebrow streak is less obvious. So I'm going with a palm warbler - the dark eye-line, pale eyebrow, plain wings, long tail, brightest yellow on undertail coverts are all field marks for the palm warbler. I've not seen a palm warbler so my id is based on process of elimination of warblers that I have seen (and I have seen lots of tennessee warlbers) and my sibleys guide! But I could be talked out of it too !

LOL Susan! I remember when I first became "a bird expert." I'd attended the beginning birder weekends at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, KY, a few years, trying to get in the birding groups with the most experienced leaders so I could learn as much as possible. One year my daughter and I grabbed a seat in one of the boats early to make sure we didn't miss the lake birding outing. When the boats were nearly full, someone asked about our boat's birding leader. The organizer glanced into our boat, pointed at me and said, "You already have one." The next thing I knew, I was a "birding expert," pointing out Common Yellowthroats, Belted Kingfishers, etc...there's always someone more experienced or less experienced that you are, in ANYthing!