The GOBC and Oaks Bottom

Well, the last few hours of October have come and gone. The Great October Bird Count is over. We ended up with 33 species (34 including Cackling Geese) but who's counting?? Congrats to Connor over at beavertonbirdblog.blogspot.com for coming in 1st place with 42 birds! What a month it has been for all of us. Some busy, some not so busy. But, always fun! Thanks again to Michele at www.mdupraw.blogspot.com/ for hosting the competition!

In other news, we signed up for and attended the Oaks Bottom wildlife Refuge walk given by Mike Houck. We was a phenomenal guide! He is a wealth of knowledge and his bird calling skills are out of this world! We really enjoyed ourselves and hope to take many more such walks.

Here are some photos from the yard and from our walk this morning. Take care and good birding!



The pumpkin feeder isn't looking so hot these days but the birds still go to it!


Northern Flicker trying to stay upright on a suet feeder.


A chunky-butt American Goldfinch!

American and Lesser Goldfinches.

Now, on to Oaks Bottom this morning...

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These are some of the first birds we saw when we arrived. It was a mixed flock of about 500 Canada and Cackling Goose.

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Shortly thereafter, something spooked them and the all took off! Notice that they are flying in front of a large mural depicting an Osprey in flight with a fish. This is the newest edition to the building famous for the Great Blue Heron painted on it. Eventually, the entire building will be one giant mural and will be the largest one in the U.S.

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See a birdy?

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I do, I do, I do!

It was awesome to be so close to a Red-Tailed Hawk!

A Northern Flicker preening and a Spotted Towhee watching from below.

Common Mergansers. We managed to spot a lot of species, including some great waterfowl.

While on our walk today, we spotted:

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House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
House Finch
Red-Winged Blackbird
Dark-Eyed Junco Golden-Crowned Sparrow
White-Crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling

American Robin

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Winter Wren

Bewick's Wren

Brown Creeper

Bushtit

Black-Capped Chickadee

Crow

Western Scrub-Jay

Steller's Jay

Northern Flicker

Belted Kingfisher

Anna's Hummingbird

American Coot

Red-Tailed Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Bald Eagle
Blue Heron

Double-Crested Cormorant

Common Merganser

Ring-Necked Duck

Green-Winged Teal

Northern Pintail

Northern Shoveler

Mallard

American Wigeon

Gadwall

Canada Goose

Cackling Goose

44 species!! What a great birding day!