A few photos

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, it's been a busy week with Thanksgiving coming up so we haven't been doing too much birding. And, with the days getting shorter, we have almost no time during the week. We always scan the backyard when we get home but usually there's not a lot of activity (or daylight). But, we still see signs of birdie visits (empty feeders, no suet) so we know they are still with us. Tomorrow, we will give them a little extra so that they can enjoy a feast, too!

Here are a few photos that we have been lucky enough to grab this week. We hope you enjoy the picture and wish wish everyone a great Thanksgiving!



The Black-Capped Chickadees are visiting more and more.


The are coming in bigger groups, too.


The Sharp-Shinned Hawks are still visiting frequently. We see signs of them, too. After one of their visits there are sometimes feeders laying on the ground (we assume this is because they are using their "bumping" technique).


The Cooper's Hawks still like to swing by, too.


Waiting ever so patiently for a bird to happen by.


The Pine Siskin numbers have dwarfed all the other finches we get, but there is still quite a few Lesser and American Goldfinches hanging around. The Lessers stay with us all year long!

Siskins and Lessers sharing a dinner table.


The Squirrel and the Scrub-Jay.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Well, I think we have succeeded in making a refuge for Sharp-Shinned Hawks. We have had over 40 (known) visits in the last 5 days from the pair (and 2 visits from the Cooper's). Our bird counts went from the hundreds to a dozen or two in the matter of less than a week. Yesterday, The hawks had a very fruitful day, taking at least 3 Pine Siskins from the yard. It's a spectacular sight to watch, but it is awful to see.

It seems our next course of action is to take down all of the feeders for a couple of weeks and let the hawks disperse. We know that they are attracted to all of the activity going on in the yard. That being said, we are in a moral/birding quandary. Do we take down all of the feeders in hopes that the hawks will stop coming around (although, it's truly something to behold)? Or, do we leave the feeders up and let "nature" take it's course? I put "nature" in quotes because we would not normally have the high concentration of birds in the yard if it weren't for all of our feeders/baths/shelters. On one hand, the hawks need to eat, too. On the other, we understand that because we have so many feeders, we are creating a hotbed of activity that might be drawing more hawks into the yard. We don't know what the right answer is.

Anyway, here are some photos from the yard. The very last photo is one that I took of a Sharp-Shinned when she was in the yard. I didn't realize until after I downloaded the photos, that she had a Pine Siskin in her grips. If you don't want to see it, please avoid the bottom pic in this post. Other than that, please enjoy these photos from the yard.



The Red-Breasted Nuthatches (sitta canadensis) always a treat!


A Black-Capped Chickadee (poecile atricapillus) looking for his next snack.


Chestnut-Backed Chickadee (poecile rufescens) preening itself.


One of our regular visiting Anna's Hummingbirds (calypte anna). They always let us know that their food is getting low by sitting near the porch and "buzzing". The only time they make this noise is when their food source is low or getting old.


The Bewick's Wren (thyomanes bewickii) has been coming around the yard a lot more the last couple of weeks. Such a treat.


This Pine Siskin (carduelis pinus) seemed to overshoot his landing. The colors on some of these guys is just awesome.



The Pine Siskins are pretty good at defending their food source. We constantly hear the chatter of the Siskins, telling each other to "move over" or "that's my spot".


A lone Pine Siskin just sunning itself on a feeder.


This Sharp-Shinned is not deterred by my presence at all. She sat there very patiently waiting for her next meal.


She was watching everything in the yard, including the dogs and squirrels.


Then, she flew to the shepherds hook again to see what she could flush out.

She then took off after a Pine Siskin and, unbeknownst to me, nabbed it in mid-air and then landed in this tree with it. I actually thought the Siskin got away, but I then realized that it had not.

Pumpkins, Birds and the GOBC

Michelle and I carved pumpkins this weekend. We went to a pumpkin patch 2 weeks ago and selected only the finest of the orange, round orbs. After trying to decide how to carve them, Michelle came up with a wonderful idea to make her pumpkin from only things that we have grown in the yard and the garden (pic below). I thought that was a terrific idea! Then that led me to my idea which, although not as cool as hers, still allowed me to do the 2 things that I love most...spend time with Michelle and birding!

Well, the Great October Bird Count is almost over :( It has been a wild ride! There is only 4 days left and it's been a little slow. Sunday was a gorgeous day but INCREDIBLY windy! Not too many birds were braving the gale force winds. We are still hearing a couple of new birds but they have yet to show their little feathered butts! I guess we shall see...



Here is Michelle's pumpkin!
Hair: Grape leaves
Eyes: Sunflowers
Nose: Agapanthus seed
Mouth: Anaheim pepper
Ears: Scarlet Runner Bean seeds
Earrings: Fuchsia Tree flowers
Flowers above the ear...we think are Coreopsis. All of this came from the yard and I think it's the best pumpkin I have ever seen! Talk about recycling!


Here is my pumpkin. I thought I'd see if the backyard crew would like to have a holiday feeder. It turns out that they like it quite a bit! It probably wont last more than a day or two but it will be fun while it lasts.


Here is a Song Sparrow that apparently is from the Eastern part of the state. We noticed him right away because of his stance, behavior and markings. We have 5 or 6 Song Sparrows that visit everyday and this guy was definitely different. We actually thought that this was a Lincoln's Sparrow at first. But, after posting on OBOL and Flickr and getting some great advice from some experienced and knowledgeable birders, we now know that this is a Song Sparrow but not from these parts. Still kind of exciting to have an out-of-town visitor!


Lots of House Finches in the yard lately.

Look at the mammoth House Finch in the back! He was flying around the yard last night and he was twice the size of the other House Finches. We thought that it might be some other species but he had all the markings of a House Finch. Albeit a large House Finch, but still a House Finch.

Squirrels, squirrels and more squirrels! Suet thieves is what they should be called!

Now here we have a squirrel that knows it's place. We set the table for him and he comes to dine! No stealing suet. Not eating sunflower seeds. This corn is for him (and the Jays) and he knows it.

We always love a visit from the Downy!

Lots of Lesser Goldfinches, American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins in the yard now.

Oh, and Juncos, too!

A little bit of everything...

Here are some pictures from the last week and they aren't in any particular order. But, we have been to Smith and Bybee Lakes, Salish Ponds and, of course, our own backyard so the pictures are staring to stack up! We hope you enjoy these and thank you for stopping by!


A juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow from a couple of days ago. He was only in the yard for about 5 minutes but it was still great to see them again!


A Turkey Vulture out at Smith/Bybee Lakes.


A juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird. We have at least 2 juve Anna males and 2 Rufous males!

One of the female Rufous

Here's the other male Rufous

The Hummingbirds really like the bird bath! They drink from it frequently.

Another shot of the male Rufous

Starlings flying to roost for the night out at Salish Ponds.

The next 2 photos are pretty much the same but the one above I focused on the Song Sparrow and the Lesser Goldfinch in the background, and in the one below, I focused on the Anna's Hummingbird in the foreground.

A few ducks enjoying Salish Ponds at sunset

A Red-Tail Hawk soaring over us at Smith/Bybee

One of our regular Red-Breasted Nuthatches. He really enjoys drinking from the hanging bird bath. None of the Nuthatches will drink from the ground waterers. Just this hanging one.

A Nuthatch enjoying some home-made suet

One of the juvenile Male Anna's we have. He is very distinguishable from the others as his red head pattern is starting to come in and it makes it look like the red is running from his right eye.

Another of the Male Anna's

This little guy is furthest along. He has almost all of his red.

Such awesome little birds!

A Scrub-Jay and a Cedar Waxwing together catching the sunset at Salish Ponds.

A Scrub-Jay eating a peanut in the yard

If you look close, you can actually see the bulge in the Jay's throat. It's the whole peanut he just swallowed.

We have seen the normal, red House Finches and we have seen the Orange-Variant House Finches but this little guy seems to be a bit of both. Is this normal coloration?

A Great Blue Heron drying himself off near the Smith/Bybee canoe launch

The Black-headed Grosbeaks are still hanging around!

Some type of frog at Smith/Bybee. There must have been a million frog there. Now we know why the Herons like it there so much!

The Northern Flickers will only visit the bird bath if the drip line is taken off.

A Northern Flicker checking out the neighborhood in the back woods of Salish Ponds.

One of the many Flickers we get in the yard. This one's tail feathers almost seem blue in color. They are such gorgeous birds.

One of the female Anna's just taking a rest.

Lots of Egrets and a Blue Heron. Notice the Egret has a fish in it's bill and, maybe it's the lighting, but the Blue Heron's bill looks black. Maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me?

A Cedar Waxwing at Smith/Bybee. Such beautiful colors!

A female Bushtit. I was amazed that there was only one Bushtit in the photo!

A Blue Heron at Salish Ponds

Whenever the Herons are around, I can't stop taking photos of them. I'm addicted to Herons!!

This is what happens when a Black-Capped Chickadee gets wet

Two Lesser Goldfinches sitting and chatting on the drip line (the line that the Flicker doesn't like).