Tillamook trip

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!

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.

Merlin and Flicker

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.

Long time, no post

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.