A few backyard photos

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?

A few backyard photos

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.

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She lets us get pretty close to her.

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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

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.

More pics from the yard

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

We hope you enjoy these pics.

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


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


A Downy Woodpecker dining on some suet.


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

A Flicker feeding on the ground.

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

An American and Lesser Goldfinch using a thistle sock.

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

Another juvenile Golden-Crowned Sparrow.

Take care and good birding!