Commonwealth Park

We went to Commonwealth Park in Beaverton yesterday for a quick bird walk. The weather was pretty miserable, but the birding was awesome! We saw First of Year Osprey and Hutton's Vireo, as well as a ton of other birds. This is a great place to bird and is easy on the feet.

Hope you enjoy!

An Osprey takes a fish in the lake, scaring the you know what out of a flock of American Wigeons.


The Osprey then flew right over our heads, carrying the fish.


A Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Myrtle variety.


This Cedar Waxwing flew into the tree we were standing under. It was great to see it so close up.

A Coot displaying his wonderful feet for us.

A Red-Tailed Hawk scanning for some lunch.

There were a lot of Red-Winged Blackbirds all over the park.

A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet flitting in and out the shrubs.

A Song Sparrow trying to hide.

This Song Sparrow living up to it's name.

Yesterday's list (41* species):

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Gadwall

Eurasian Wigeon

American Wigeon

Mallard

Bufflehead

Pied-Billed Grebe

Osprey

Northern Harrier

Red-Tailed Hawk

*Possible* Rough-Legged Hawk

Coot

Killdeer

Rock Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Downy Woodpecker

Flicker

Hutton's Vireo

Steller's Jay

Scrub-Jay

Crow

Tree Swallow

Black-Capped Chickadee

Bushtit

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Bewick's Wren

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Robin

Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Audubon's and Myrtle)

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Junco

Red-Winged Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

5th Annual Wings and Wine Festival

Good morning to all! Coming up on May 8th, 2010 is the 5th annual Fern Ridge Wings and Wine Festival! If you haven't been to this awesome event before, this is the year you should plan on going. It is about as much fun as you can possibly have! Let's see...wine + birds? Does it get much better?

At the Fern Ridge Wings and Wine Festival they have a ton of different activities going on all day long. All sorts of walks, classes, tours, and talks are scheduled. You can take a look at their events schedule here. This festival really is a lot of fun and they have activities for the whole family.

Some of the events do require pre-registration and a nominal fee, but again, all the events are well worth it. You can take a look at the events that require pre-registration and register for them here.

Michelle and I are really looking forward to attending the festival and we hope to see a lot of you there. If you see us walking around, please feel free to say hi!

Take care and good birding,
Seth and Michelle

More pics from the yard

It's been a really busy week for us, but we still managed to snap a few photos. We have been seeing a few bright yellow American Goldfinches lately. We also had our first of the year Rufous Hummingbird, but he flew off before we could get a photo (don't they always?). We saw our first of the year White-Crowned Sparrow (pics below). We usually have White-Crowned all winter long, but not this year.

We hope you enjoy these pics.

A Bewick's Wren grabbing some bugs under our office window.


2 Townsend's Warblers trying out a new blend of NePo Suet.


A Downy Woodpecker dining on some suet.


A Junco, a White-Crowned Sparrow, and a Golden-Crowned Sparrow grabbing some seed spread out on the ground.

A Flicker feeding on the ground.

A male Northern Flicker eating some NePo Suet, taken through our bathroom window.

An American and Lesser Goldfinch using a thistle sock.

An adult Golden-Crowned Sparrows (left) with 2 juveniles.

Another juvenile Golden-Crowned Sparrow.

Take care and good birding!