I've had a hard time lately coming up with something worth posting to the blog, what with the inclement weather and the dearth of decent photo opportunities at the marsh. I did get this shot of a female common yellowthroat on Monday, August 1st. She was busily preening her feathers, a practice I notice all birds seem to spend a lot of time doing. Reading up a little on the practice, I found that not only do they preen to clean and realign their feathers, distribute oil through them (secreted by a gland near their tails), and rid themselves of mites and other parasites - during molting, which is going on now, they also need to remove the sheaths from the new feathers as they grow in.
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