New Product!

Most of you know, we (Seth and Michelle) own and operate NePo Suet Company here in Portland, OR. We just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new product available starting today! NePo Cricket Cakes! The cases will be regularly priced at $75 per case (12 cakes), but for the month of October we will be offering them for only $55 plus free shipping to anywhere in the U.S.!

These suet cakes are packed full of dried crickets and made with the same quality, love, and care that you have come to expect from NePo Suet!

We will only be offering 20 cases for the month of October, so remember to order quickly.

Dried crickets are almost a perfect food for wild birds. They are more nutritious than just about any other feeder insect. We have been testing these in the backyard for a month now, and the birds absolutely 

love them! 

Been away for a while...

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

A few pics from the yard

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.

What a treat!

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!

Salish Ponds

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?