Portland Oregon Backyard Birds

Been away for a while...

2011-10-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

We apologize for not posting in the last few months. We will try to get a little better about posting regularly. Here are a few photos from the last few months with more to come soon. None of these are in particular order. Take care and good birding!

A Steller's Jay waiting for a handful of peanuts

A Song Sparrow taking a quick bath

A Bushtit getting ready to take off after grabbing
some suet

Townsend's and Black-Throated Gray Warblers

3 Warblers bathing at one time! Orange-Crowned,
Black-Throated Gray and Townsend's!

Same 3 little guys

3 Black-Throated Gray Warblers at the same time!
This was a yard record for us. Normally, we
only get one at a time.

This Orange-Crowned Warbler flew in through
the garage, then through the kitchen and into the living
room. He landed on a plant near the ceiling.
It took us a while to get him to fly back out.
This was 2 days after a
Steller's Jay did the same thing.

7 Band-Tailed Pigeons in our backyard. They
are frequent visitors to our yard.

This Band-Tailed Pigeon obviously thought he was a
House Finch. He kept trying, though.

A Wilson's Warbler on one of our hikes

A Hermit Warbler on the same hike

White-Crowned Sparrow on top of Saddle Mt

Evening Grosbeaks fighting over some seed. We think
that is a House Sparrow in front of them

An Orange-Crowned Warbler in the yard
(not in the living room)

Evening Grosbeaks gathered for some dinner

A female Western Tanager grabbing some suet

Here she is again

We don't think the Evening Grosbeaks liked sharing,
but no body seemed to want to speak up

A Band-Tailed Pigeon in flight

Evening Grosbeaks waiting for the bird bath

Another Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeaks on the right and a solitary
Black-Headed Grosbeak to the far left

A female Evening Grosbeak

One of our resident Anna's Hummingbirds in our
front yard

It really likes the maple tree in the front of the house

Another Anna's eating from the Fringecup

A beautiful male Robin

A Yellow-Rumped warbler pretending to be a
hummingbird

Yellow-Rumped Warbler grabbing some suet

Every spring we get Anna's Hummingbirds grabbing
bits of dryer lint for their nesting material

Tillamook trip

2011-04-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I took a quick trip over to Tillamook and surrounding areas this week. It was, as always, a fun trip and we always see some great birds (for us at least).

The weather didn't cooperate too much but there were some breaks from the rain storms and we tried to take advantage of them as much as we could. Here are some photos from the trip and we are already planning our next trip to the coast. There is a list of all the birds we identified at the end of the post.

A Western Gull sits atop a post at the Memaloose boat ramp. We were on our way to the Bayocean spit when we decided to swing into the boat ramp parking lot.

We were really glad we stopped! This is a Horned Grebe in breeding plumage just off of the dock.

There were actually 5 or 6 Horned Grebes in this area.

Here is a Common Loon in the same area. There were 6 of these birds, as well.

A small flock of Black Turnstones. This is the only photo we got but they are another life list bird for us!

A Red-Necked Phalarope. There were 2 of these little guys feeding just as you entered the spit.

A view of Tillamook Bay.

Another great find for us was this Red-Breasted Merganser. Yet another life lister.

Yellow-Rumped Warblers abound!

You couldn't look left or right without seeing a Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

Another Western Gull posing (read: begging).

A Turkey Vulture caught us off guard flying right over our heads.

Birds we identified (51 species):

Canada Goose

Mallard

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Red-Breasted Merganser

Common Loon

Horned Grebe

Western Grebe

Double-Crested Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Black Turnstone

Northern Harrier

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Red-Tailed Hawk

Kestrel

Killdeer

Red-Necked Phalarope

Western Gull

Ring-Billed Gull

Caspian Tern

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Flicker

Scrub-Jay

Crow

Raven

Tree Swallow

Violet-Green Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black-Capped Chickadee

Robin

Starling

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-Crowned Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Junco

Red-Winged Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

Cowbird

House Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow!

2011-04-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we found a Lincoln's Sparrow in the backyard! We have only had this visitor once before and that was when there was nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground a couple of winters ago.

Here are a couple of photos. It isn't letting us get very close but we are trying to get some better shots.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Another shot of it.

Savannah Sparrow Yard Bird!

2011-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, we have had a Savannah Sparrow in the backyard! We have seen it many times out in the field, but never in our own yard. It showed up last night and was back here bright and early this morning.

We also have the iBird app on our phones and when we play the Savannah Sparrow song, we get quite a few replies from a 1 or 2 block radius. Fun stuff!

The Savannah is in the middle surrounded by Juncos and White-Crowned Sparrows.

This was about as close as we could get without it flying off.

Hanging out in our Quince tree.

Birding Adventures: An Introduction to Bird Watching

2011-04-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Friends of Tryon Creek State Natural Area are hosting guest speaker, and Wetlands Education Specialist, Sarah Pinnock (from Jackson Bottom Wetlands) on Tuesday, May 3rd from 6pm-8:30pm! This will be a great chance for those of you that are relatively new to birding to come out and be part of a discussion on an introduction to birdwatching. It will also be an opportunity for experienced birders to get a little refresher course (those never hurt) and to meet some folks that are new to the birding community. This event is completely free to attend!

Free wine, beer, and other refreshments will be served (what is it about birders and their wine?)! It will be a fun and relaxed evening for all and a great learning experience for birders of all levels. You can read more about it here!

Tryon Creek Park is a hub of activity for a number of resident and migratory birds. With spring just around the corner, the park should be full of activity. If you have never been to the park, you should definitely schedule a day to visit!

Friends of Tryon Creek also have quite a few other birding-related events coming up in May. Here are some of the other events you can check out:

Workshop: Beginner Birding – April 28 (6 – 7:30 p.m.) and May 1 (8 – 11 a.m.). Cost is $6 ($5 for members)

Morning Bird Walk – May 2, 9 & 16, 7 – 9 a.m. Free.

International Migratory Bird Event: Go Wild! Go Birding! – May 14, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Free.

Family Event: A Celebration of Woodpeckers – May 15, 2 – 4 p.m. Free.

You can go here to see their complete calendar of events for any month!

Take care, good birding, and we hope to see you there!

2011 Festival of the Birds

2011-04-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Festival of the Birds is coming up this May 7, from 9am-3pm, and taking place at Sellwood Park - just above Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge (Portland's first designated Migratory Bird Park)! This is a great time for new and experienced birders alike to come out and enjoy a day devoted to wild birds!

If you have never been it is a really great, family-friendly festival with guided bird walks (every half hour from 9am-2pm), booths, vendors, food, educational birds from the Audubon Society of Portland, storytelling, family activities, live music and more! It's quite a fun day and, best of all, it's completely free!

There is also a free, guided early bird walk on the day of the festival starting at 7:30am, however, registration is required. You can go here to pre-register for the walk!

Michelle and I, as NePo Suet Company, will be at the festival also. We will be offering Festival discounts on our suet. If you would like, stop by our booth and let us know you saw the blog and we will give you a 10% discount on your total purchase!

We hope to see you there and let's make this the biggest Festival of the Birds yet!

A few backyard photos

2011-04-04T08:49:00.001-07:00

We finally had a sunny (read: not rainy) day here in Portland! WooHoo! It has been so wet and yucky lately that we haven't been getting many photos. So yesterday we decided to get a few. Nothing spectacular but fun to look at anyway. We hope you enjoy!

A Steller's Jay coming in for some of their favorite food!

A Scrub-Jay testing each peanut to make sure it measures up to his standards. If it doesn't, he puts it back and keeps looking until he finds just the right one. Sometimes they even bring a peanut back and exchange it for a better one.

Aha! I think we have a winner!

A Robin contemplating a bath.

The bath is a "GO", I repeat the bath is a "GO"!

A female Red-Breasted Nuthatch looking as pretty as ever.

The same Nuthatch deciding to grab a bite to eat.

A Pine Siskin trying to figure out how to crack a black-oil sunflower shell with it's tiny beak.

A Junco having an afternoon snack.

Another Junco looking for that perfect sunflower seed.

A Fox Sparrow singing away yesterday. There are two of them and this is the latest we have ever had them in the yard. Usually, they are here during the dead of winter and then they skedaddle. But this year, they have been hanging around and seem to be in courtship. We are hoping to see some baby Fox Sparrows in the near future!

A Flicker trying to decide what to eat next.

A female Downy Woodpecker grabbing some suet!

A male Downy doing the same thing on the same feeder.

Could Bushtits be any cuter?

Ms. Ryder's First Grade Class

2011-03-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I were invited to speak at Willamette Primary by Ms. Ryder and her first grade class. She wanted us to speak to her class about bird watching and feeding. They have been learning about birds this whole year and have had a couple of field trips and even a visit from the Portland Audubon Society.

We have never considered ourselves teachers (we still have a lot to learn!) but we looked forward to the opportunity to talk about birds. We were greeted by Ms. Ryder and her class and we were so happy to see the excitement in their faces! They immediately started asking questions about birds and looking at the different bird feeders and food we brought for the presentation. We also noticed outside of their classroom about 8 different bird feeders hanging nearby. They also had quite a few bird nests, eggs, and other bird related items in their classroom! It was so fun to see all of these young minds so inquisitive about birding. We did 2 presentations (one for Ms. Ryder's class and one for Ms. Lana's class). We heard some great bird stories and were surprised by the level of knowledge these first graders displayed! These young boys and girls will be outbirding us in no time at all!

We had a wonderful time and we can't thank Ms. Ryder enough for inviting us! Thank you to all of the kids, in both classes, for such great questions and for making us feel so welcome! Keep up the good work!

Merlin and Flicker

2011-01-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

Looking through our photos that we took of the Merlin in our neighborhood 2 days ago, we discovered that a Northern Flicker was flying by at one point. We thought it was kind of a cool photo.

Merlin

2011-01-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

We just saw a Merlin in NE Portland! This is the first time that we have seen this bird in our part of town. What a great treat!

Ridgefield

2011-01-03T11:20:00.001-08:00

Michelle and I went on our annual New Year's Day birding trip. This time (as usual) we went to Ridgefield NWR. It was a bone chilling day but skies were mostly clear and there was some great birding going on. We have never seen so many Red-Tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Blue Herons, or Bald Eagles all at the same time. They were everywhere.

We also added a bird to our Life List! A Black Phoebe! It's a rare bird for Ridgefield and we felt very lucky to have seen it! Here are some other photos from the trip. We hope you enjoy!

We identified 39 species. Species list is at the end of the post. Great start to the New Year!

One of the many Red-Tailed Hawks we saw during the trip.

Tundra Swans resting on the icy ponds.

The Blue Herons were as thick as fog. We found several of the just standing in the road not seeming to have a care in the world!

They all seemed quite willing to pose for some photos.

We came upon this Heron just as it nailed the ground with fury. He then pulled out a Vole (we think anyway).

He made quick work of the rodent.

A couple of seconds later and down it went!

Here is the Black Phoebe! At first, we thought it was a Slate-Colored Junco, but after watching it for a few minutes through the bins and hearing it's very distinctive call, we determined that it was in fact a Black Phoebe.

5 juvenile Bald Eagles surveying the land for their next meal.

A smattering of Tundra Swans with hundreds and hundreds of Northern Pintail.

Here are 2 photos of an unidentified Hawk. It was slightly larger than a Kestrel. It's wings seemed to be rounded in flight. We only got this one back shot before it took off. We didn't recognize the pattern on the back.

Here is a blown up version. The tip of it's beak seems to be light colored (yellow?). Any ideas?

Species:

Canada Goose

Cackling Goose

Tundra Swan

Wood Duck

Mallard

Shoveler

Pintail

Ring-Necked Duck

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Ruddy Duck

Pied-Billed Grebe

Cormorant

Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Red-Tailed Hawk

Kestrel

Coot

Red-Breasted Sapsucker

Downy Woodpecker

Flicker

Black Phoebe

Steller's Jay

Scrub Jay

Crow

Black-Capped Chickadee

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Marsh Wren

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Robin

Starling

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

House Sparrow

New York City Birding

2010-11-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I went to New York for 3 days last week. We were pretty busy but we did get to spend about 9 hours birding in Central Park. It was incredible! If you have never birded Central Park before, you should definitely plan to do so. We saw dozen of species and about half a dozen Life List birds! We also were lucky enough to see Pale Male (the Red-Tailed Hawk) and then Zelda (the wild Turkey) in Battery Park.

Here are just some of the photos we took in no particular order. Let us know if you enjoy these! Have a great day and good birding!

A Blue Jay (a life lister for us).

Another Blue Jay posing for us! The fall colors were incredible.

A Common Yellowthroat in the middle of NYC. This photo was actually taken on our way to Central Park. This little bird was in a small shrubby area in a huge plaza.

Another Common Yellowthroat in Central Park. They were everywhere!

A beautiful male Cardinal! Another lifer for us!

Here is his gorgeous female counterpart. It was so cool to see these birds!

Another male Cardinal. Just stunning birds.

Another female Cardinal that let us get pretty close.

An Eastern Phoebe, yet another life lister!

A Golden-Crowned Kinglet grabbing some lunch.

A Hermit Thrush. These guys were everywhere, too.

And here he is...Pale Male! If you haven't heard about this most famous of Hawks, you should definitely read about him. It's a wonderful story!

A Peregrine Falcon flying over us while we were walking down 5th Ave. We saw a few Peregrines during our trip.

A Red-Breasted Nuthatch trying to find a place to hide his pine nut.

This is a terrible photo, but it's the only one we got of a juvenile Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker! A life lister for sure! This is the only one we saw during our excursion.

Here is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. We saw a few of them and yet another added to our life list!

A row of House Sparrows on a fence in the park. We have never seen so many House Sparrows as we did in NYC.

A Red-Tailed Hawk sitting right above a woman who did not know it was there.

Another Red-Tailed Hawk in the park. We just thought this would make a great photo.

A juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk cleaning his beak after finishing off a squirrel.

Here is the same juvenile Red-Tailed sitting on top of the aforementioned squirrel.

He let us get pretty close. He wasn't going to let anyone take away his lunch!

Here he is in another tree. We guess when a bird lives in NYC it gets pretty used to people everywhere.

Another Golden-Crowned Kinglet eating some berries.

A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet showing his beautiful plumage.

Another Ruby-Crowned Kinglet in Central Park.

A flock of Ruddy Ducks and the skyline.

A Song Sparrow sitting pretty.

A Tufted Titmouse! A life lister that we were really hoping to find! Such cute little guys!

A White-Breasted Nuthatch digging for bugs. We rarely see them in Portland but they were all over Central Park.

A Winter Wren coming out of its hidey-hole.

Another Winter Wren just off one of the paths through the park.

And here is Zelda, the wild Turkey that lives in Battery Park. We hadn't heard of Zelda before our trip so you can imagine our surprise when we came across her!

A few photos

2010-10-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry that we haven't been posting lately! We have been crazy busy with our suet company and our community organization. We are going to be gone all week, so we wanted to post a few photos before we went. We're traveling to New York City this week, so when we get back we will post some east coast birdies! Hope you enjoy!

Also Scott Lukens, the owner of the Backyard Bird Shop chain here in the NW, was on Garden Time TV this week and he mentioned NePo Suet! Thanks Scott! You can watch the short video here: http://www.youtube.com/v/QIt7tcKnaKk

One of our resident male Anna's Hummingbirds on his favorite feeder.

A Townsend's Warbler taking a quick bath.

A small flock of Bushtits bathing together!

A Brown Creeper in our Mountain Ash tree! This is a very rare visitor to the yard!

A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet taking a dip!

The first of season Spotted Towhee!

Exciting stuff!

2010-09-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

We're not sure how many of you know, but we (Michelle and I) also run a community organization called We've Got Time to Help. We have gathered a (ever expanding) group of unemployed volunteers that go out into our various communities and help those in their time of need. We have done all sorts of projects from roofing, plumbing, moving, yard work, etc. etc.

For every unemployed/underemployed person in Oregon, there is a person that is in need but can't afford to hire someone or can't (for myriad reasons) help themselves. That's where we come in, or try to.

Yesterday, we got the shock of a lifetime! We were awarded with one of the Huffington Post's top 100 Game Changers for 2010! We couldn't, and still can't, believe it. It is such a wonderful honor and, we think, undeserved. Arianna Huffington also talks about our group in her new book, "Third World America". It has been an incredible last couple of days.

If you would like to see our story, please go here. You can also vote for us on this page.

Thanks for stopping by and a huge thank you to all of our volunteers! Without so many of you, we could not have helped so many!

Northern Pygmy Owl!

2010-08-22T14:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Michelle and I went out for our last training hike before climbing Mt. St. Helens next week. We chose to do the Elk Mountain/King's Mountain loop in the Tillamook National Forest. After we left the summit of Elk Mountain, about 500 feet down the trail towards King's Mountain, we came across a Northern Pygmy Owl just sitting on a tree stump! It was awesome to see and a Life List bird for us! Below are a couple of photos.

When we first was him (from about 100 yards away), we actually thought it was a Swainson's Thrush. But after walking a little closer, we could tell that it was an owl!

It was great to have him/her just sit there and pose for us. We rarely ever find owls, let a lone such a tiny little guy!

A few backyard photos

2010-08-04T10:40:00.001-07:00

The yard has definitely been getting busier over the last few weeks. Most of our regulars are in and the food is going quickly! Here are some photos from the last week. Hope you enjoy!

A female Anna's Hummingbird making herself pretty.

She lets us get pretty close to her.

The Anna's and the Rufous both enjoy all the flowers coming up.

A juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow on our roof.

This juvie White-Crowned Sparrow seems to have been adopted by our resident Song Sparrows. The juvie follows them around and seems to be begging from them. The Song Sparrows don't seem to mind a bit.

Here is the White-Crowned Sparrow asking for some food from the Song.

A male and female American Goldfinch with a House Finch sitting between them.

A Red-Breasted Nuthatch enjoying some suet.

We haven't seen very many Black-Headed Grosbeaks this year, but this female Grosbeak visits almost everyday. Here she is grabbing a drink from the drip line.

Here she is grabbing some black-oil from underneath a feeder.

This photo was taken from our Birdcam. The Flicker has just recently started using the birdbath.

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Long time, no post

2010-07-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took us so long to get a post up here. As some of you know, we are training to climb Mt. St. Helens in August. We spend almost all of our free time hiking and climbing or making suet for our company. We have hiked/climbed 5 mountains in the last 30 days. Most of the photos below are shots from our hikes, but to start things off, here are a couple from the yard.

We hope everyone is having a great summer and we will try to get posts up more frequently.

A fledgling Downy Woodpecker being taught where to eat by momma.

Shortly after this photo was taken, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk came through the yard and we suspect the mom was taken by him. We haven't seen her since, but the juvie still visits everyday.

A Towhee on the top of Angel's Rest in the Gorge.

A Swainson's Thrush on our way to the top of Nesmith Point.

A Cedar Waxwing the the top of Angel's Rest.

A Flicker at Powell Butte.

An Orange-Crowned Warbler on Angel's Rest.

A Red-Breasted Sapsucker feeding babies at Powell Butte. We found 3 different Sapsucker nests at Powell Butte.

A Violet-Green Swallow at the top of a very foggy Saddle Mountain.

Another VG Swallow let us get pretty close.

It's hard to see, but this is a White-Crowned Sparrow and a Violet-Green Swallow, also on Saddle Mountain.

Another, closer, White-Crowned Sparrow.

A Lazuli Bunting at Powell Butte.

A Dipper on the trail at Wahkeena Falls.

A Gray Jay on the trail to Nesmith Point.

A group of 4 Gray Jays. We saw six at this spot, at least 3 were fledglings.

A Hairy Woodpecker at the same spot as the Jays.

A Raven saying hello at Wahkeena Falls.

BirdLife International

2010-05-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

We just learned of another wonderful birding organization that we wanted to let everyone know about. BirdLife International is a great group of people that are devoted to birds on a global scale. As their website states: "BirdLife is the world’s largest global alliance of conservation organizations that share a mission: to conserve wild birds, their habitats and global biodiversity".
We read through their website and they do some amazing work. They have great stories, wonderful photos, and up-to-date news stories all concerning birds and conservation. They have started a new area on their website called BirdLife Community. They also have a new Flickr group that you can view and join and submit your own photos!

They have blogs, pictures, videos, and news stories all about birds! When you have a few minutes, you should really check them out.

We just joined their Flickr group and will be posting some of our backyard photos.

Take care and good birding,
Seth and Michelle

Source: www.birdlife.org/community

Koll Wetlands

2010-05-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Michelle and I went to Koll Wetlands in SW Portland. It was a great day of birding with a couple of nice surprises. If you have never been to Koll, it’s definitely worth the trip. Here are some photos from our day. We hope you enjoy them!

A male Wood Duck let us get pretty close to him. Amazing looking birds!

It doesn't get much cuter than this. A female Wood Duck with her babies.

A couple of different sets of Wood Ducks with a male in the middle. He must be very busy...

Another female Wood Duck with her brood. The Wood Ducks were all over the wetland area.

A male Wood Duck with a lone duckling.

This Red-Winged Blackbird obviously had a nest close by. He told us in no uncertain terms that we were not welcome near this shrub.

Great Blue Herons atop one of the many conifers surrounding the wetlands. Koll Wetlands actually has a Heron rookery in the SE edge of the park.

Another Great Blue Heron flying back to the nest.

Herons, Herons everywhere!

This guy just looked picture perfect.

See that head and neck in the center of the photo? That would be a nestling Great Blue Heron! What a fuzz ball!

Here is another...

...and another. We think all of the nests had young ones in them. It was great fun to watch them!

This Black-Capped Chickadee landed right above us. He/She was obviously heading back to the nest with some food. We tried to follow it, but it flew away too fast.

This was a surprise for us. We found 2 Bald Eagles at Koll. One was this 2nd year and the other was a full adult.

Here are the 2 Eagles in mid air.

These Canada Goose were either fighting or trying to mate. They were really going at each other and making one heck of a ruckus. But, we did get a good look at Goose tongue.

A pair of Red-Tailed Hawks near the water's edge. We scanned for a nest but didn't see one.

A fledgling Junco below the tree the Herons are nesting in. Juncos definitely grow into their beauty.

A pair of Sharp-Shinned Hawks were circling above us for quite a while.

A lone Spotted Sandpiper finding some food.

This Common Yellowthroat was going to town with his vocalizations!

This last photo is from the yard. The Coopers Hawk is actually sitting on a Starling that it just took down.

Sandy River Delta

2010-05-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I went out to the Sandy River Delta this morning and spent about 6 hours there. It was our first time to bird this area and what a trip it was! We saw four Life List birds and 46 species total! It was a great time and we hope you enjoy the photos.

Lewis's Woodpecker! The sky was a drab gray, so we had to lighten the photo for you to be able to see any detail. Not a good photo, but you can definitely see what it is!

Another of the Lewis's.

One more just because we were so excited to see it! A Life List bird for us!

Bullock's Oriole! They were everywhere. Every path we took we ran into more Orioles. It was great! Another Life List bird.

A Yellow-Breasted Chat! This was another wonderful Life Lister for us!

Singing away just off one of the many paths.

A Green Heron trying to hide.

Then he decided to come out for a little photo op.

A Hermit Thrush let us get pretty close.

A gorgeous Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

Festival of the Birds and NePo Suet

2010-05-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

This coming Saturday, the 8th, at Sellwood Park (Oaks Bottom) from 9am-3pm, join U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the City of Portland and Portland Audubon for a celebration of migratory birds! It's the Festival of the Birds!!

There will be guided bird walks, family activities, bird education, and booths for you to enjoy. The Portland Parks & Recreation Dept. has been kind enough to invite NePo Suet to have a booth at the festival. We are very excited to participate and to get the word out, to Portlanders, about our suet. Please come join the festivities, enjoy the fantastic birding, and learn about birds in our area. It will be great fun (and, hopefully, good weather)!

Please feel free to stop by our booth and say hi!

Hope to see you there,
Seth and Michelle
NePo Suet Company

Commonwealth Park

2010-04-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

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!

Our yard

2010-03-25T11:04:00.001-07:00

The yard has been a little quieter this winter than in past years. We're not sure exactly why. It has been a very mild winter here in Portland, so that may be part of the cause. Don't get me wrong, our yard is still pretty busy, just not quite as busy as the last few years.

We have been missing the Pine Siskins and White-Crowned Sparrows. We have seen a total of 4 Pine Siskins this whole season. Usually, we have 100's of them.

But, it's still been a great season and we always enjoy our backyard friends, whether it's 1 bird or a thousand. Here are a few photos from the last few days.

Here are a couple of the Red-Shafted Flickers grabbing some of their favorite suet. We have 6-8 Flickers that hang around on a regular basis.

Earlier this year, we had a Pink-Sided Junco in the yard. Now, we have a Slate-Colored Junco hanging around!

One of the beautiful Lesser Goldfinches eating some Nyjer seed. We are lucky enough to have these guys all year long.

A Robin checking one of our flower beds for some tasty worms!

It's been too long...

2010-03-16T07:29:00.001-07:00

Good morning to all! Sorry that we have not been up on the proverbial ball lately! We have been super busy with getting our suet company, NePo Suet, going and we haven't been birding nearly as much as we would have liked to (but isn't that always the case?).

So, without further ado, here are some bird photos and we hope to be a little better about posting in the future!

Female Anna's Hummingbird

Yellow-Rumped Warbler grabbing some suet.

We have seen the Spotted Towhee in our backyard quite a bit this winter!

The Sharp-Shinned Hawks are still regular visitors.

An Orange Variant House Finch.

A Red-Shafted Flicker having lunch with us!

An Orange-Crowned Warbler snooping around the backyard.

The Red-Breasted Nuthatches seem to be in smaller numbers this year (at least for us).

A beautiful male Lesser Goldfinch.

A Chestnut-Backed Chickadee hanging out on a sunny day!

NePo Suet Company - Premium, Handcrafted Suet

2010-03-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hello to all! Sorry that we have not posted in almost a month, but we have been really busy with our new business, NePo Suet Company! We officially started NePo Suet last month and have been going gangbusters since then.

We have been making suet for quite a while now for our own backyard birds. More recently, because it has been such a hit in our yard, we started thinking about starting a suet business.

We had quite a few people try it in their yard, all around the country, and we received a phenomenal response! Everyone has loved it and had great things to say. A few local stores have started to carry NePo Suet and we are trying to get into more soon.

We have spent the last many months perfecting the recipe and we have come up with, what we think, is the best suet on the market. Taste test after taste test has proven that birds prefer NePo Suet to any other suet on the market, even the more expensive ones.

Some quick facts about NePo Suet:

All of our suet is no melt!

Our suet cakes weigh about 25% more than other cakes on the market, but still fit in any suet feeder.

We make the suet in very small (14 cake) batches to insure quality and consistency.

We have 6 varieties right now and will have different seasonal cakes all year long.

We buy all of our ingredients for our suet from small, local vendors.
.

If you would like to order some NePo Suet and you live in Portland, please give us a call at

503-953-6018 to schedule a pick up. If you live outside the Portland area, we can (and do) ship all over the country. If you order a full case (12) you will receive free shipping to anywhere in the US.

Jackson Bottom Wetlands

2010-02-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Michelle and I went to Jackson Bottom Wetlands to scout for some first of year birds. We weren't disappointed! We identified 51 species and suspect at few other species. It was a little foggy at first, but it burned off pretty quickly. Hope you enjoy the photos. A list of birds we saw is at the end of this post.

2 adult Bald Eagles flew right over our heads as we were making our way through the area.

This was a very friendly Song Sparrow that decided to investigate our intentions a little closer.

A Belted Kingfisher scanning for some breakfast.

We saw quite a few Fox Sparrows in our travels around the wetland.

Also plentiful were the Bewick's Wren.

A flock of Dunlin at one of the ponds. The were very well camouflaged.

One of our favorite birds is the White-Breasted Nuthatch. He was just slowly working his way around this tree.

List of birds we saw at Jackson Bottom:

American Goldfinch

Lesser Goldfinch

House Finch

Red-Winged Blackbird

Junco

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (both Audubon's and Myrtle)

Starling

Robin

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Marsh Wren

Bewick's Wren

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Bushtit

Black-Capped Chickadee

Crow

Scrub-Jay

Steller's Jay

Flicker

Downy Woodpecker

Belted Kingfisher

Mourning Dove

Dunlin

Killdeer

Coot

Kestrel

Red-Tailed Hawk

Bald Eagle

Great Egret

Blue Heron

Cormorant

Pied-Billed Grebe

Ruddy Duck

Common Merganser

Bufflehead

Lesser Scaup

Canvasback

Green-Winged Teal

Pintail

Shoveler

Mallard

American Wigeon

Tundra Swan

Cackling Goose

Canada Goose

The Great Backyard Bird Count

2010-02-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it that time of year again. Yep, the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up! It's a very fun and easy way to participate in citizen science and to have your observations truly contribute to the scientific studies of birds. Plus, it's something that you enjoy doing anyway....watching birds!

The first thing you can do, is set aside some time between Feb. 12th-15th to count birds. You can spend as little as 15 minutes counting on just 1 day, or as much as 10 hours each of the four days. It's completely up to you! For more info, just visit the GBBC website and have a look around.

(Townsend's Warbler)

Now, when the count actually starts (on Feb. 12th) the only thing you need to do is count the greatest number of each species that you see together at any one time. So, for example, if you see 5 Juncos together in the morning, and then you see 10 Juncos together in the evening, you would just mark down that you saw 10 Juncos. For more info on how it works, see this page.

(Yellow-Rumped Warbler)

If you're not sure what species you may have in your area, you can download and/or print a regional checklist directly from the GBBC website here!

(Evening Grosbeaks)

Then, after you are done with your count for the day, you can go here to the input page (the actual form will be available the first day of the count). This is a very easy form to fill out and only takes a few minutes. You just never know what you might find in your backyard!

(Bald Eagle)

So don't lounge around all day! Just pick up your binoculars and a piece of paper and keep track of what you see. If you want to, grab your camera and take some photos of the birds you see during the count. You can submit your pics on the site and have a chance to win some great prizes...take a look!

(Canada Goose Gosling)

NePo Suet Company

2010-01-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

Please check out our newest blog at http://neposuet.blogspot.com/

Our small little suet company has started to grow! We decided it was time to create a blog about our suet. Please have a look and pick yourself up a few of the best suet cakes on the market.

Take care and good birding!

Pink-Sided Junco!

2010-01-15T12:23:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos that we have taken over the last 2 days. This is a Pink-Sided Oregon Junco. This subspecies is usually found in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It typically winters in areas such as Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and western Texas.

There has never been a verified occurrence of this subspecies in Oregon. We have sent a reporting form and photos to the Oregon Rare Bird Committee and we are waiting to hear from them to see if they will recognize this subspecies (usually they just accept new species, rather than subspecies), but we're hoping! We have spoken to one of the members of the board and he feels that it is a good and verifiable Pink-Sided Junco! Very exciting!!

The photos aren't great, but they are still clear enough. Here's a link to a much better photo (not taken by us) of a Pink-Sided Junco: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christian_nunes/3054400855/sizes/l/ and if you compare, it's pretty easy to see that the photos below are, indeed, a Pink-Sided Junco!

Compare this photo with the link above. It's the best example.

The Pink-Sided have a bluish/gray hood (head), extensive pinkish flanks (sides), dark lores (the eyes), and a light colored throat.

It was dark and very cloudy, so the photos aren't very good.

I can't tell you how excited we were to find this female!

Kind of blurry, but you can still tell the difference.

Sauvie Island 1/9/10

2010-01-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

Michelle and I went on an Audubon birding trip to Sauvie Island on Sunday. The trip was led by Mike Houck, who is always a blast to bird with. If you haven't done so, check out the Audubon sponsored trips here. Here are some of the many photos we took. It was overcast most of the time, so lighting wasn't that good. Enjoy!

p.s. at the bottom of this post is our entire list of birds seen on the trip.

Here is a flock of Sandhill Cranes in the distance. We were fortunate enough to see hundreds of Sandhills all over the island.

A couple of Sandhill Cranes getting a little closer to our group.

Another flock of Sandhill Cranes.

Not a great photo, but in the distance is a Bald Eagle swooping in on a Green-Winged Teal. He swooped on it many times, but it would dive under the water when he got close. The Eagle eventually was successful, though.

One of the dozens of Bald Eagles we saw on the trip. This was the greatest number of Bald Eagles that we have ever seen in such a short amount of time. We saw somewhere between 25-30 Eagles in 3 hours.

Here is the Eagle that was chasing the Teal. He flew to a tree about 50 feet away from our group and proceeded to eat his meal.

He was very mindful of all the other Eagles in the area.

We saw one lone Great Egret on the trip.

One of the many flocks of Northern Pintails we saw.

An American Kestrel on their usual perch. We only saw a hand full of Kestrels on Sunday. Usually, they are more plentiful. I guess the Bald Eagles took their place.

A mixed flock of thousands of Snow and Canada Goose. It was an amazing sight to see. This flock brought a collective gasp from the group.

Another raptor that was seen in good numbers was the Red-Tailed Hawk.

A Scrub-Jay checking out our group to make sure no one had any peanuts. We didn't.

A small flock of Snow Goose flying above us.

A few Tundra Swan. We saw quite a few of them on the trip.

Bird identified on Sunday; 37 species:

Snow Goose

Cackling Goose

Canada Goose

Tundra Swan

Mallard

Northern Pintail

Green-Winged Teal

Ring-Necked Duck

Lesser Scaup

Bufflehead

Pied-Billed Grebe

Double-Crested Cormorant

Blue Heron

Great Egret

Bald Eagle

Harrier

Red-Tailed hawk

Kestrel

Coot

Sandhill Crane

Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker

Flicker

Scrub-Jay

Crow

Black-Capped Chickadee

Bewick's Wren

Robin

Starling

Spotted Towhee

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Junco

Red-Winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

House Finch

A few photos

2010-01-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from around the yard over the last few days. As always, we hope you enjoy them!

One of the 9 Band-Tailed Pigeons that are still coming in the yard everyday. Very unusual for this time of year.

The local Bewick's Wren grabbing a bite of suet.

One of the many Yellow-Rumped Warblers we get in the yard. This guy came in when we had our unexpected snow storm a couple of weeks ago.

Robins snacking on one of our Pyracantha shrubs. They really enjoyed the berries.

They picked this bush clean in just a couple of days. Notice the center Robin is just about to swallow a berry?

Another Yellow-Rumped Warbler, same feeder.

We noticed this Song Sparrow on our fence the other morning. What really caught our eye was the spider web stuck to his head.

Band-Tailed Pigeons

2009-12-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

We just had a flock of 9 Band-tailed Pigeons fly into the yard. We haven't seen them for quite sometime. Usually they are gone by now and return in late February.

One of the nine in the tree.

I could get 4 in this photo. They were all over the tree, though.

I believe there are 6 pigeons in this photo. It was a great treat to see them so late (early?).

A few pics from the yard

2009-12-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics in the yard from the last couple of days. The yard has been getting busier and busier over the last couple of weeks. Lots of Juncos, American Goldfinches, Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, Black-Capped and Chestnut-Backed Chickadees, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-Rumped and Townsend's Warblers, Flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, a Red-Breasted Sapsucker, Scrub and Steller's Jays, Bewick's Wrens, Song, White- and Golden-Crowned Sparrows, Spotted Towhee, Bushtits, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, and Anna's Hummingbirds are all common visitors right now. We have heard the Varied Thrush a couple of times, but we haven't spotted him yet.

Wishing everyone a great birding winter season!

We have tried in vain to ID this gull. We think we ID the gull and then we notice a marking that rejects our theory. Any ideas?

A Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Both the Sharpie and the Cooper's hawks are starting to visit the yard more and more.

A Bewick's Wren searching for some good bugs behind the house. Such a great looking bird.

Flora and Fauna Nature Company

2009-11-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the good people at the Flora and Fauna Nature Company have started stocking their shelves with our suet! We are very excited and we look forward to growing a small business.

Our suet is (we think) the highest-quality suet on the market. Our Everyday Blend has rendered fat, peanut butter, black oil sunflower seeds (whole), sunflower chips, filberts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, nyjer seed, oats, cracked corn, crushed oyster shells, millet and flour. Every cake is stuffed full of seed and nuts. We have tested it against many other suet cakes and it is far and away better than any other we have found. The Flora and Fauna Nature Company is selling it right now for $3.99 a cake or 3 cakes for $9.99.

Bushtits

The suet in our yard has been enjoyed by Bushtits, Black-Capped and Chestnut-Backed Chickadees, many types of Woodpeckers, many types of Warblers, White-Breasted and Red-Breasted Nuthatches, Wrens, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Juncos, quite a few species of Sparrow, Scrub and Steller's Jays, and Black-Headed Grosbeaks.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

We have shipped suet to many parts of the country and has been popular with birds everywhere.

An odd looking American Goldfinch

We don't know if this was just left over from his summer colors or a permanent marking. But it looked cool!

So please give our suet a try and let us know how it's working in your yard. Take care and good birding!

A few photos

2009-11-09T07:57:00.001-08:00

Here are a few photos of some regular residents in our yard. Hope you enjoy them!

An Oregon Junco deciding which sunflower seed looks the best. We are getting about 20-25 juncos a day now. In winter, we usually have around a 100 or so in the yard at any given time.

One of the many Flickers we get in the yard.

We had 5 in the yard at the same time yesterday. Last winter, we had nine at once! Yes, we go through lots o' suet.

A Black-Capped Chickadee that was nice enough to pose for a couple of photos.

They usually don't hold still long enough for me to get the shot.

Commonwelath Park and the yard

2009-10-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today, Michelle and I went out to Commonwealth Park in Beaverton. It was just supposed to be a quick stop, but we ended up being there for quite a while.

Among the variety of birds, were a juvenile Green Heron (who let us get really close) and a Horned Grebe!

So here are some photos from the trip and a few others from the yard.
Good birding to all.

Here is the gorgeous juvenile Green Heron! He has been one of the most elusive birds for us. We catch quick glimpses, but we have never been able to stare at him.

Here he is staring right back at us!

Such a cool looking bird!

Please don't ask how many photos we actually took of this little guy.

Photo 9,215...

Showing off a bit for the camera.

I can't tell you how excited we were to finally find this bird!

A Horned Grebe. We've never found one at Commonwealth Lake before.

A Green-Winged Teal.

A beautiful American Wigeon.

An odd looking American Wigeon among some Mallards.

Here is the odd looking Wigeon out in the lake.

A female Wood Duck.

Some Steller's Jays filling up in the backyard.

A female Purple Finch.

A (blurry) Red-Breasted Sapsucker on the telephone pole in the backyard (yes really, in the backyard).

A first of season Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Audubon's).

More photos from the yard

2009-09-13T05:37:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos from the last week or so. The Band-Tailed Pigeons are still hanging around. The most we counted at one time was 7! It was awesome to see so many at once.

The American Goldfinches are slowly starting to return, but they have lost most of their summer colors and are now the more muted yellows. They will winter with us by the hundreds.

Of note, this last week we saw, not only the Common Nighthawk (see post below this one) but a Pacific-Slope Flycatcher also stopped by! That's only the second Flycatcher we have ever had in the yard.

So, without further adieu, here are a few pics...

We have really enjoyed playing host to these Band-tailed Pigeons.

They are great fun to have around.

They are usually resting atop this telephone pole/wire in the mornings. This pole, strangely enough, is actually in our backyard. Here you can see 5 of them.

Here are four of them in one of our homemade fly-thrus.

One of the more colorful American Goldfinches stopping in for a quick drink. Once they get their bright yellow summer colors we usually don't see them again until the start of fall when their colors are a little more drab.

A female Bushtit. They are coming in the yard 20 or 30 times a day now.

A Lesser Goldfinch snacking on a sunflower leaf.

The Lessers decimate our sunflowers leaves during the summer. They seem to enjoy the leaves as much as they do nyjer seed.

A very friendly House Finch taking a sip.

Common Nighthawk!

2009-09-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

We just had a Common Nighthawk circling above the house! This is a life list bird for us and we certainly never expected to see one here. Here are a couple of (really) bad photos we just took.

A long time coming...

2009-08-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone and thanks for being so patient with us. We took a little blogging hiatus for the last few weeks, but we are back and ready to start blogging like crazy.

Here is a collection of photos from the last month or so, and please forgive us, they are not in any real order.

We hope you enjoy the photos and we will be posting more later this week. Take care and good birding!

An Osprey flying right over us at Ridgefield NWR.

A Flicker defending his suet from a Starling.

A juvenile Flicker camping out on a feeder. She wasn't quite sure how to hang on the side.

This photo is of a Cooper's Hawk in our yard. He flew in, and because of the shade, only his eye was really visible. It stood out like a bright, red berry.

We have had a pair of Band-Tailed Pigeons hanging out in the yard over the last couple of weeks!

They seem pretty friendly. They are a little jumpy, but if we sit still, they will hang out for a while.

One of them grabbing a drink.

A juvenile Steller's Jay learning to get 3 peanuts into his throat, just like he's seen the adults do.

A fledgling House Sparrow. Too young to fly, it just sat in this tree in our backyard while the male pitched a fit about us being too close.

A young Pied-Billed Grebe at Ridgefield NWR.

Some fledgling Cedar Waxwings at Salish Ponds.

These were taken a few weeks ago.

The might have been the cutest things ever!

While in the backyard a week or so ago, we were lucky enough to get a couple of photos of a very young Spotted Towhee!

The Black-Headed Grosbeaks have been hanging out in the yard the last few weeks.

Another Black-Headed Grosbeak stopping in for some dinner.

This Black-Headed Grosbeak was snacking on some berries.

We have had quite a bit of Hummingbird activity the last couple of weeks. At least five different birds, both Anna's and Rufous have been enjoying the bird bath. Here is a Rufous taking a bath.

They are such cute little creatures it is hard not to take dozens of photos each time!!

This Anna's Hummingbird has an unusual white spot on the top of it's head.

Another shot of the Anna's Hummingbird with the white patch on it's head.

An Anna's Hummingbird defending it's perch against a Rufous Hummingbird.

A quite moment at the feeder for the Rufous Hummingbird.

We have been loving all the different Juvenile birds coming to the yard lately. This Scrub Jay has learned where to find peanuts!!

He still hasn't quite mastered shelling peanuts yet. He kept dropping them through the bench and having to get another one.

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch with a black oil sunflower in our Mountain Ash tree.

All of the remaining photos were taken at Ridgefield NWR.

This juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron posed quite nicely for us right off the the auto route trail!!

What a sight!!

He watched us watching him holding very still.

A rare site for us this time of year. A Blue-Winged Teal at Ridgefield NWR.

The Blue-Winged Teal being followed by some Juvenile Coots.

A Belted Kingfisher sat quietly for a time allowing for some great shots!!

A female Common Yellowthroat.

A Mourning Dove enjoying the day.

An Olive-Sided Flycatcher at Ridgefield NWR.

Another Flycatcher at Ridgefield. This one is a Willow.

As we were leaving Ridgefield NWR we saw a large flock of unidentified birds. Any clue to what they could be??

A closeup of the same flock.

Some waterfowl off in the distance. Any clue what they might be?

This Red-Tailed Hawk was chasing dinner on the ground.

We couldn't tell what dinner was supposed to be but the Red-Tailed Hawk was determined to catch it!

A week in the yard

2009-07-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from our yard in the last 10 days or so. Hope you enjoy them and we hope everyone is having a wonderful Summer!

This is one of the resident Anna's Hummingbirds that we are lucky enough to host in the yard. She is pretty tame and sits for lots of photos.

We caught her doing this the other day and we have since seen it multiple times. She just sits there, and every once in a while, she would open her bill, and then snap it shut. Could she be flycatching? It wasn't hot, so I don't think she was panting. Any ideas?

Here she is doing it again. We have tried to find some info on it, but nothing so far has described what she's doing.

Such a gorgeous bird!

Here is a female Rufous Hummingbird. She flew to this feeder as I was standing next to it, photographing a Downy Woodpecker.

Here's the Downy on it's favorite suet feeder.

He also lets me get pretty close. Such cool looking birds.

Such a cute little face!

As I was photographing the Downy (above), this Cooper's swooped into the yard. The only bird to not get out of the yard was the Downy I was taking pics of. He stayed on the suet feeder, frozen stiff. Poor guy.

I backed away from the Downy so as not to scare him out of the tree and into the hawk's view. As I backed away, the Cooper's flew into the tree I was under and about 5 feet from the Downy. If you look close, you can see the Downy of the right side and in the middle is the Cooper's tail. Fortunately, the hawk flew off and the Downy lived to see another day.

2 of the many newly-fledged Scrub-Jays coming into the yard. Notice the all gray heads.

Another one of the fledglings. Very cute and fluffy.

Here is a newly-fledged Robin. There are young ones all over the yard. Jays, Robins, Sparrows, Chickadees, Cowbirds, Cooper's Hawks. It's a great time to be bird watching!

A Black-Capped Chickadee grabbing a snack.

Here are 8 abandoned (we think) Chickadee eggs. The nest box is on the side of the house and we watched them build it for weeks. Then, they just stopped coming to it. So we took it down, thinking we would just find an empty nest and this is what we found! So the box went immediately back up, but we still haven't seen the Chickadee pair going to it. Why would they abandon an entire nest?

Oregon Coast Trip

2009-06-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I went to the coast for a few days for her birthday. We stayed in Cannon Beach with Haystack Rock just outside of our room. It was an incredible trip and we nabbed quite a few new Life List birds.

We were lucky enough to have some of the lowest tides of the year during our stay. The tide was so low, that we could walk behind Haystack Rock.

The trip was capped off with an amazing sight. We stopped at Fort Stevens, parking lot C, and were treated to 10,000+ Brown Pelicans and 1000's more Brandt's Cormorants. It was phenomenal!! I wish the pictures we took could convey what we saw. It was the most incredible sight. Huge flocks of Pelicans flying in and out and 1000's just sitting on the beach.

We hope you enjoy these photos and, hopefully, we won't wait so long in between postings. Take care and good birding!

A Greater Yellowlegs at the north end of the Necanicum Estuary

We found this Turkey Vulture in the woods here, partaking in some squirrel dinner. It was odd to see the Vulture in the forest.

See the hole? Now look to the right and you can see a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee getting ready to fly into it with some food in its' bill.

On the south side of Necanicum Bay, there were tons of Wilson's Warblers chasing each other through the woods.

We tried to ID this guy we found at Seaside Cove but we couldn't come up with an answer. Any ideas?

We found a couple hundred Brown Pelicans at Seaside Cove. It was awesome.

This is a photo of tons of Heerman's Gulls at Seaside Cove. There are a few other gulls thrown in, but the majority is the Heerman's. Life List for us!

A Pelican eating a fish. See it in his pouch?

The gull in the center is the Heerman's.

Pelicans everywhere!

Hundreds more Pelicans at Ecola State Park. There are also Cormorants, Murres, and Gillemots, too.

More of the same!

And still more!

We have never been so close to harlequin Ducks before. We found these at the base of Haystack Rock. They are such incredible looking birds!

2 Western Gulls with Starfish in their mouths! The extremely low tide made prime dining for the gulls.

A nesting Western Gull on Haystack Rock.

A shot of Haystack Rock with Pelicans flying along the sea.

See all the birds in the air? This is what happens when a Bald Eagle swoops in on the Rock.

Here goes the Eagle after successfully nabbing a Common Murre. He few right over our heads with it in his talons.

A Western Gull and one of the millions of Starfish in the rocks in Cannon Beach.

Two more Bald Eagles sitting behind Haystack Rock.

Nesting Tufted Puffins!! They are such cool birds!

3 more Puffins. Their colors were so striking.

During a small rain storm, the rocks in Cannon Beach looked gorgeous. There are 2 Bald Eagles sitting atop the rock in the back.

Haystack Rock without any water surrounding it. It was a very odd sight, but a great birding opportunity.

This Common Murre was kind enough to land close to us.

Nesting pelagic Cormorants. We saw 100's of nests all along the coastline.

A Western Gull and a Black Oystercatcher. Great looking birds!

Another Oystercatcher. It's amazing, with those bright red eyes and bill, how hard the are to see sometimes.

In Tillamook, there is a place called the Blue Heron Cheese Company. It's a great shop and we always stop in when we are in town (try their smokey garlic mustard!). This time, as we were walking in, we spotted this nest just above the front door.

As we got closer, we realized that it was a nesting Barn Swallow. She didn't care at all about the people walking in and out of the store. She just sat there, presumably on eggs.

Inside this circle is 3 juvenile Peregrine Falcons! This is at Cape Meares. The volunteers had a couple of scopes set up for people to look through. It was a great sight and one that we won't soon forget.

More nesting Pelagic Cormorants at Cape Meares.

This photo is of lots of Marbled Murrelets and 1000's of Common Murres. We couldn't fit all the birds into a single photo. We tried many times with no luck.

A singing White-Crowned Sparrow. The sparrows were all up and down the coastline.

A bunny at Cape Meares.

Just off of the parking lot at Cape Meares, we were treated to a couple of newly fledged Chestnut-Backed Chickadees! Notice the yellow still on the bill. This little one couldn't have been out of the nest for too long.

3 Black Oystercatchers in Depot Bay.

A Harbor Seal looking for fish in Depot Bay's harbor.

A Whimbrel in Newport. We only saw a couple of shorebirds on our trip.

An anemone in the tide pools back at Cannon Beach.

One of the smaller rocks behind Haystack Rock. The Pelicans and Cormorants loved to sun themselves here.

A Pelagic Cormorant in fight.

This is a side-view photo of Haystack Rock. Because of the low tides, we got further out and close to Haystack Rock than we ever have been able to before.

In the parking lot of our hotel, Barn Swallows were busy gathering nesting material.

Here is one of the views from the viewing platform from parking lot C in Fort Stevens. The coast was lined with Brown Pelicans. There were thousands more just off the shoreline and 1000's more in the air.

We don't know exactly how many there were, but everyone agreed that there were at least 10,000 Pelicans.

The Pelicans were flying right over our heads on the platform.

They are such amazing creatures. It was breathtaking to see so many at once.

1000's and 1000's of Pelicans.

Like we said earlier, the pictures cannot convey the enormity of the sight.

There were lots of Caspian Terns at Fort Stevens, as well.

A view from our car as hundreds of Pelicans fly past the platform and jetty at parking lot C.

A 3rd yr. Bald Eagle surveying the situation in Astoria. He was waiting for the gulls to get some food and he would then chase them and make them drop it, then he would go retrieve the food and eat it himself. Pretty smart if you ask me.

Evening Grosbeaks!

2009-05-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Our yard has been inundated by Evening Grosbeaks the last 10 days or so. At first, we saw 2, then 4 and now we are seeing them by the dozens! 40, 50, 60+ all day long. They are on the feeders and in the trees and on the ground and still we can hear others calling from a block or two away. Tons of Evening Grosbeaks. This is the most we have ever hosted by far. Last year, we had a whopping total of 2 stop by the yard for a day. Very fun stuff!

A male Evening Grosbeak getting a drink.

A portion of the Grosbeaks that hang out here all day long.

Fern Ridge and Koll Wetland photos

2009-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I went to Koll Wetlands a couple of weeks ago and then to Fern Ridge Wildlife Area about a week ago. She took me to Fern Ridge for one of my birthday presents! We had an awesome time and on the Fern Ridge trip we added 6 new Life List birds!! It was phenomenal birding and we can't wait to go again!

We haven't had a chance to post until now. So, without further ado, here are the photos from our trips and a few miscellaneous pics.

Common Yellowthroats were everywhere at Fern Ridge. 100's of them all over the place.

We have never seen so many at one time. Flying right in front of us and over our heads!

A female Wood Duck at Koll Wetlands.

A female Wood Duck with little babies in tow! How cute is that?

A Violet-Green Swallow at Koll.

One of the many turtles at Fern Ridge. This one was kind enough to pose before slipping back into the water.

Black-Necked Stilts at Fern Ridge. A Life List bird! They were gorgeous.

Another Stilt.

And yet another Stilt.

An Osprey nest (with an Osprey in it) overlooking a farm at Fern Ridge.

A Spotted Sandpiper behind Michelle's office building in Beaverton.

Red-Tailed Hawks were all over Koll Wetland area. Flying pretty low, too.

Such beautiful, majestic birds.

Here was another Red-Tailed Hawk at Koll. I don't know if he had some food he was protecting or if he was just sunning himself.

The Crows thought that keeping an eye on the Hawk might be a good thing.

A Purple Martin at Fern Ridge. Another Life List bird!

A Pine Siskin bathing in our backyard.

American White Pelicans at Fern Ridge. They are awe inspiring birds.

There was probably 30 Pelicans there. The Pelicans with the large bump on their bill are breeding males. The are such large birds, especially, up close

An Osprey fishing at Fern Ridge.

A Canada Goose family behind Michelle's office. Notice the adult on the right? It has a white forehead. Strange.

A Marsh Wren letting the world know that he's available! Like the Common Yellowthroat, the Marsh Wrens were everywhere. 100's and 100's of them!

We just liked this photo because it contains White Pelicans, Coots, a Blue Heron, a Bald Eagle, a Canada Goose and a Galdwall. Can you find them all?

A male Red-Winged Blackbird doin' his thang!

On our way out of the Fisher Butte unit, at the corner of Royal Ave and Fisher Rd, we found this nesting Western Kingbird.

Not exactly the best photos, but it was still really cool to find!

3 Killdeer making a lot of noise at Koll.

This Killdeer let me get quite a bit closer.

At Koll Wetlands, we found a Blue Heron colony right off the road. Here is one of the Herons in the nest.

This one shows (kind of) a juvenile Blue Heron in the nest and another nest above it. Sort of hard to see the baby, but it's there!

Here are 5 of the nests. There were 8 that we could find in the tree.

A Greater-White Fronted Goose at Fern Ridge.

A big Canada Goose family behind Michelle's office.

This little Gosling at Koll looks like he's injured. He's not. I actually watched him walk over to this spot, lie down and and then stretch itself out. He seemed to be enjoying the sunshine!

Here's another one, stretching after getting up.

A pair of Gadwall at Koll.

A female Red-Winged Blackbird blending into her surroundings.

A trio of Cinnamon Teals in flight at Fern Ridge. There were Cinnamon Teals everywhere you looked.

A Chipping Sparrow at Fern Ridge Lake.

A couple of Canada Geese under a bridge in Downtown Portland.

Lazuli Bunting!

2009-05-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

We just had a new yard bird/Life List bird come into the yard a few minutes ago...a Lazuli Bunting!!

I have to scramble out of here to get to an appointment but we will post more photos tonight. This was so exciting!!

Is this a Hammond's Flycatcher

2009-05-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

This was flitting around a pear tree in our yard last night. We are having trouble identifying it. We believe that it is a Hammond's Flycatcher. Any thoughts?

Pics from the last few weeks

2009-04-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here we go again, being bad bloggers. We haven't posted much this last month, except for a couple of new arrivals to the yard. We have been quite busy with our community organization We've Got Time to Help, that we don't post enough. So, here are some photos from our travels around Portland over the last few weeks and, as always, we hope you enjoy them!

A Killdeer behind Michelle's office in Beaverton.

A female Lesser Goldfinch eating some thistle.

A male American Goldfinch waiting his turn for some thistle.

A pair of Gadwalls at Oaks Bottom this past weekend.

A Bald Eagle surveying Lake Oswego.

A Bald Eagle at Oaks Bottom.

Another angle of the Oaks Bottom Eagle.

A Chestnut-Backed Chickadee gathering some nesting material.

Another photo of him (or her) getting some fluff.

One of our resident Golden-Crowned Sparrows.

A pair of Evening Grosbeaks in the backyard.

The male Evening Grosbeak in the apple tree.

An Osprey attacking a Bald Eagle at Oaks Bottom on Sunday.

A female Common Merganser scratching her head.

A Greater Yellowlegs in a pond behind Michelle's office in Beaverton.

A Ring-Necked Duck at Oaks Bottom.

A Red-Tailed Hawk above the house.

A male Red-Winged Blackbird at a pond near Vanport Wetlands in North Portland.

A male Wood Duck at Oaks Bottom.

A male Northern-Shafted Flicker in the backyard.

A male House Finch in the backyard.

An Osprey at Oaks Bottom last weekend.

Another Osprey at Camassia Wetlands in West Linn.

A female Anna's Hummingbird.

A Hutton's Vireo gathering nesting material at Camassia.

Another shot of the Hutton's with nesting material.

A Cooper's Hawk nest at Camassia a couple of weeks ago. Paul Sullivan led the walk around the area and we spotted this towards the end of the trail.

An Orange-Crowned Warbler at Camassia.

A rare Purple Finch in the backyard.

FOY Evening Grosbeaks!!

2009-04-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

2 Evening Grosbeaks just came into the yard!! This is quite a bit earlier than the last few years. We took a bunch of pictures, but we have an appointment to go to, so here are a couple of the pics and we will post more soon!!

Here is the male Evening Grosbeak...

...and here is the female on the same apple tree branch!

First of Year Chipping Sparrow!

2009-04-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Just a few minutes ago, we had a Chipping Sparrow come into the yard! It's the first time this year that we have seen this little guy. We usually see him once or twice a year for a single day, then he's gone again. He let us get pretty close this year. Thanks little guy!

What a treat!

2009-04-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well, on our last post, Michelle and I were treated to a rare sight for us, an Anna's and Rufous Hummingbird on the same feeder. We have seen dozens of photos of multiple Hummingbirds at a single feeder, but it just doesn't happen in our yard.

Then, just one day after the Anna's and Rufous, we were treated again, but this time, it was 2 male Rufous Hummingbirds! It was amazing to watch them. The was some aggression but not enough to make either one fly away. This encounter lasted about 2 minutes and we took about 100 photos. It was awesome!

Here are those photos and some of our other visitors. Good birding!

It was so awesome to see these 2 male Rufous at the same feeder!

They were talking turns for most of the time. One would fly up and the other then would fly down.

I'm surprised that any of the photos turned out, as I was shaking as I snapped them!

Yea! I'm singing some show tunes!

A Scrub-Jay grabbing some suet.

A very pretty Pine Siskin.

This little guy just looked picturesque.

One of our resident Song Sparrows is a little suet hog!

This week in photos

2009-04-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone had a great week! We were really busy with our community organization, We've Got Time to Help, so we didn't have a chance to post until now.

It has been a busy yard, too. We have been filling up the feeders just about everyday and going through about 8-12 suet cakes a day. We love it, and with the sun coming back for a few days, maybe we will get some Springtime visitors.

Here's wishing everyone good birding and a great weekend! Enjoy that sunshine!

A female Northern Flicker at her favorite feeder.

a female Downy Woodpecker taking some suet.

The brightest American Goldfinch that we have seen this year. He would not sit still or let me get close to get a good photo.

A hungry group of House Finches.

A Junco with a weird shoulder patch.

A Steller's Jay taking some suet.

A Chestnut-Backed Chickadee and a Townsend's Warbler grabbing some tasty suet.

A male Rufous and female Anna's hummingbird!! This was the first time we have ever had 2 species of Hummingbird at the same feeder. It's even rare for the same species to share a feeder in our yard.

It was so cool! It took us a while to realize that this is not the same male Rufous that we have been seeing. This one had different markings and he was not aggressive at all. There is a male Rufous that seems to have "claimed" the yard and he has no compunction about chasing any bird out of it. But this male below, wasn't chasing anyone off and even seemed a little intimidated by the female Anna's. There are a couple of other "oddities" about this specific Rufous at the end of the post.

A female Anna's

A female Rufous

A male Anna's

A male Rufous (look close and you can see his little tongue).

Here are a few photos that we found odd. Notice the green patch on the top of the Rufous' head? We have not seen this before and it's not on the other male(s) that come into our yard.

Also, notice the tail feathers. There seems to be no markings or coloration on it at all. I have looked through dozens of photos of different Rufous Hummingbirds and they all seem to show markings/coloration on the tips of the tail.

Here's a closer look at the tail. Is this normal?

Salish Ponds

2009-03-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

This Sunday evening, Michelle and I decided to run up to Salish Ponds in Gresham to see if the Osprey that nest nearby were back for the Summer. No such luck, but Salish Ponds are always nice and it's a great little hike around them. Sometimes, the birding is great, other times, not so much. This time wasn't too bad. We didn't see many songbirds but there was a lot of waterfowl out and about.

Here's how the city describes the ponds "Located between Halsey and Glisan streets at the site of an old rock quarry, the 70-acre Salish Ponds Wetlands Park opened in October 1999 and is Fairview's largest city park.
Visitors can see hawks, geese, ducks, rabbits, coyotes and other wildlife. The Salish Ponds Trail connects to the Reynolds Middle School Campus and the Gresham-Fairview Regional Trail to the west. TriMet bus 77 serves Salish Ponds Wetlands Park. Get off at 207th Avenue and walk south two blocks to the Salish Ponds Trailhead."

You can actually see quite a few more birds than they list, if you go at the right time. Anyway, here are a few photos from our walk. Good birding!

This was a nice surprise, there are still some Ring-Necked (we still think they should be called Ring-Billed, but that's our opinion) Ducks hanging around. Usually, they are gone by late March, early April.

This is a photo of 2 silhouetted Robins. We really like how this one turned out.

There was a lot of Mourning Dove activity at the ponds. Here is just one of the many we saw.

Here is a pair of Mourning Doves in a distant tree.

Canvasbacks are also usually gone by now. Everything seems to be a little off schedule this year. We have our assumptions that it was that nasty winter we had.

A female American Wigeon. There was also a single male swimming around.

I could resist throwing a photo of the female Rufous Hummingbird in the mix. Can you blame me?

Photos from the yard

2009-03-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

It has been getting busier and busier in the yard lately! We have been going through a lot of seed in the last couple of weeks. But, that's a good thing!

Here are some of the photos we have taken this week. We hope you enjoy them all. Good birding to everyone!

The Rufous Hummingbirds are in all day now. We see both the male and female frequently. The one below is the male.

Here is the female Rufous. Such gorgeous little birds!

The Townsend's Warblers are still hanging around, too. We are hoping that they stick around for a while longer.

Here is a Yellow-Rumped Warbler that is getting his breeding colors. All of the Yellow-Rumped that we see now are fluffy and full of color!

One of our resident Song Sparrows. We have a feeling that she has built a nest on the side of our home. We scan the yard daily for juvenile Song Sparrows.

A rare (for us) Band-Tailed Pigeon decided to drop by for a while. We always enjoy their visits.

A male Lesser Goldfinch looking just about as pretty as can be!

A Downy Woodpecker checking out some home-made suet.

The American Goldfinches are really starting to show their breeding colors now! The bird beside him is a Lesser Goldfinch (female) and below him is a Pine Siskin.

New yard photos!

2009-03-22T21:27:00.001-07:00

Here are a few recent photos from our yard. The Rufous Hummingbird still comes around everyday. The Juncos, Pine Siskins, Towhee and Varied Thrush are still hanging around. Pretty late in the year for them to be around, but we'll take them!

Here is a very odd looking Bushtit. Notice how brown his head is and how distinctive the line between his head and body are? Is this normal?

A male Anna's Hummingbird at one of our feeders.

2 male House Finches eating some black-oil Sunflower Seed.

A Yellow-Rumped Warbler through our office window. I wish it was more clear, but the rain and double-pane glass wouldn't afford that.

A Townsend's Warbler feeding on the ground.

One of the many Hawks that come through the yard on a weekly basis. This one is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.

A Robin getting ready to bathe.

A Robin bathing!

A small flock of Bushtits.

The return of the Rufous Hummingbird!

2009-03-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

While doing some much needed yard work this afternoon, in the much needed sunshine, Michelle and I were loudly buzzed by a (first of season) male Rufous Hummingbird! This is probably the earliest we have seen him. Luckily, we had the camera out in the yard with us so we were ready.

Pictures can not do this little guy justice.

He was the most gorgeous Rufous that we have ever seen.

We are hoping to have many more photo ops with him over the next few months.

Suet for sale

2009-03-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Please see our new website at: http://neposuet.com

Thanks!

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

2009-03-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today, Michelle and I decided to go birding somewhere new. We have been all over the place, but we have never made it to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. The rain was coming down and the wind was howling, and that was before we even left the house. I don't know what possessed us to go out into the yucky weather, but we are sure glad we did! 54 identified species today! (Species list at bottom of post)

Not only was the weather perfect, but we saw 2 new Life List birds! The rain was coming down in sheets as we drove out to TRNWR and we were expecting it to be a pretty miserable day, weather wise. By the time we arrived at TRNWR, the sun was out and it was fairly warm. The wind blew all day but not so much that it wasn't enjoyable.

Then, after we left the refuge, we stopped at Vanport Wetlands. We were just in time to see a Bald Eagle hunting the area for some dinner. We saw quite a few types of waterfowl, too.

Then, on the way home, we took Marine Drive. There were quite a few waterfowl along the river and a lot of raptors on the land side, one of the raptors was a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk (pics below). Overall, it was a great day birding and a great day spent together!

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Here is the sign in the main entrance to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.

Here is just one of the countless gorgeous views at the refuge.

After searching the lower area, we hiked up to the Ridgetop Overlook. On the way back down the trail, we both spotted this Great Horned Owl coming in for a landing!

He was gorgeous. This was a Life List bird for us.

He sat there for about 5 minutes and then took off for parts unknown. But, not before we got about 40 photos of him.

A Western Bluebird. We saw quite a few of them on the trail just behind the Refuge Headquarters. Another Life List bird.

Another Western Bluebird.

And one more Bluebird for good measure.

On the way home, we took Marine Drive and found a ton of raptors. This juvenile (notice all the white) let us get so close. Exciting stuff!

One of the 4 bald Eagles we saw today. This guy has just a hint of color on the tail, so we assume that he is about as close to a full adult as possible.

One of the many groups of waterfowl we saw today. This group of Northern Pintails was at Vanport Wetlands.

The 54 species that we positively identified today:

Canada Goose

Cackling Goose

American Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon

Mallard

Green-Winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Northern Pintail

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Ruddy Duck

Cormorant

Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Red-Tailed Hawk

Kestrel

Coot

Killdeer

Mew Gull

Herring Gull

Thayer's Gull

Rock Dove

Great-Horned Owl

Anna's Hummingbird

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Steller's Jay

Scrub-Jay

Crow

Tree Swallow

Black-Capped Chickadee

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

Bushtit

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Bewick's Wren

Western Bluebird

Robin

Starling

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (both Audubon's and Myrtle)

Townsend's Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

White-Crowned Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Junco

Red-Winged Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

House Finch

Pine Siskin

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Birds from the yard and around town...

2009-03-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's been another busy week in the yard. We have been going through a ton of seed and suet lately (more so than usual). The Juncos, Siskins, Towhee and Varied Thrush are still hanging around, which is pretty late for this yard. Normally they are gone by now, but we will relish their continued presence! The Townsend's and Yellow-Rumped Warblers are still hanging around in good numbers, too.

No new spring visitors yet. We are keeping an even more watchful eye out though, as we are certain that we have heard a much-too-early Black-Headed Grosbeak singing lately. I have tried in vain to find him a few times, but alas, nada.

We have been seeing the Red-Tailed Hawk again over the house. She has been flying right over our home and very low. We assume it's a female because she is so large. From a distance she looks she has the wingspan of an Osprey. She's huge!

I found this Ruby-Crowned Kinglet in a small tree just singing away. I have never heard one singing so loud or so much. It was great fun to listen to.

A Townsend's Warbler and a Bushtit sharing a bit of suet.

Another Bushtit. This one is a male (females have light colored eyes).

At a local pond the other day, I found a Great Blue Heron fishing along the shore line. What a sight to see! He had to jab the water a few times before he was successful, though.

All the way down! Maybe going for a frog?

I combed over this photo to try and tell what he had caught, but no luck. He shook the ever loving crud out of it, though.

More Beaverton Birding

2009-03-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some more photos of Beaverton birds! Most of these were taken at Commonwealth Lake. Click here for more info on the Park. We hope you enjoy the photos.

Red-Winged Blackbirds were everywhere! Singing their songs and choosing nesting areas. I easily counted over 300 of them.

They were very willing to pose for some photos, too.

An American Wigeon. There were about 300 of this species as well.

Beaverton has lots o' Towhees! Such great looking birds.

You just gotta love the Song Sparrows.

This is about as close as I've ever been to a Red-Tailed Hawk. He was sitting in a tree about 20ft above my head.

There were at least 4 of the Red-Tailed over the park all day long.

This guy was sitting as little higher than 20ft, but I still had to take the photo.

A pair of Red-Tailed Hawks just cruising along the thermals.

A Cooper's decided that the Red-Tailed can't have all the fun.

This Downy Woodpecker was such a ham! He let me get within about 3ft to take his photo.

There was one lone Pied-Billed Grebe at the pond.

If you look closely, you can see a female Red-Winged Blackbird on the right, a Scrub-Jay in the middle and a Robin on the left.

This was a brave little Fox Sparrow. He just hopped around the leaves as I walked around and took photos.

What birds are these?

2009-03-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

We have a ton of other photos that we will post tomorrow of birds that we have identified.

But, we need your help with these IDs. Here are the strange photos from today.

Leucistic Canada Goose? This goose was in a flock of 50+ Canada Goose. Traffic wouldn't allow us to stop in the middle of the road for too long!! Darn non birders.

What kind of Sparrow is this?

Hybrid Wigeon?

Around the yard

2009-03-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

We have been watching the Flicker box with great interest! There have at least 3 different Flickers checking it out. This Flicker, a hybrid (see the red on the nape of the neck?), actually did a little excavating. He pulled out quite a few of the wood chips and spent some time drumming on the box itself. How cool would it be to have a Flicker family?!?!?!?

The Townsend's Warbler is still very active in the yard. There are 3 or 4 of them and they spend most of the day here.

I guess the squirrels gotta eat, too.

Bushtits! There have been some huge flocks (60-80) in the yard lately.

Northern Flicker nest box

2009-02-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

Last year we built our first Northern Flicker box. Almost immediately, we had a Flicker move in and start excavating (we had packed it with wood chips). Unfortunately, the Starlings soon moved in and the Flicker finally gave the box up. We were extremely disappointed to say the least.
Well this last year, we learned a few things and built a new Flicker box a few days ago. The first one we built had no deterrent for Starlings. They could just fly right up and hop in the box. So this year, after some studying and reading up a little, we changed things a bit. First, we sloped the front of the box inward, so that the entrance is on an incline. Secondly, we put a small shield of plastic above the opening. Both of these additions are supposed to work as Starling deterrents.

So now, we sit and wait (not so patiently) for a Flicker to move on in and start the nesting process. Fingers are crossed, lucky coin is in my pocket and our shoelaces are tied twice on the left side. I don't know what more we can do.

Take care!!

Here is the Flicker and Flicker box from last year. A pretty basic and straightforward design. But nonetheless, he moved in quickly. It was actually an intergrade that moved in.

Here is the new box with the "Starling Proof" additions. We shall see.

This new box is about 10" taller and 10" deeper. It still ha s a 7"x7" floor, but the box itself is quite a bit larger.