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.

Birds from the yard and around town...

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.

Commonwealth Park in Beaverton

Well yesterday, after attending the Wild Arts Festival, Michelle and I decided to drive out to Commonwealth Lake Park out by her office in Beaverton. We were not expecting to see too much but we were pleasantly surprised when we got there. We saw quite a few species and got a new Life List Bird (we had not yet IDed the Ring-Billed Gull)!

We stayed for about an hour and had a great time. Here are a few of the photos form our visit. Thanks for stopping by!


Here's your sign! I could tell you how to get there but I promise that I would get you lost. It's not hard to find, I just suck at giving directions. That is why God invented Google Maps!


A non-breeding Pied-Billed Grebe. He was the only one of his kind that we saw. They are neat little birds, though.


An American Coot. We saw quite a few of them and this one was nice enough to pose for the camera. I nominate the Coot's feet for the "Weirdest Foot Award".


From across the lake we spotted this sleeping Blue Heron. So, after we got around to the other side, I crawled through the trees and mud to see if I could get a little closer to him.


I finally found him after a little search. He wasn't sleeping anymore.


He kept his gorgeous yellow eyes on me the entire time. I couldn't get any clear shot of him so I had to put the camera on manual focus to try and get him. It kind of worked.


This is a female Common Merganser. She was swimming around with 5 other females but no males.


We eventually saw the male Common Merganser down at the other end of the lake. There were 5 males. Kind of funny that they were split up by sexes.


Here is the newest addition to our Life List. A Ring-Billed Gull!


This is a Herring Gull. It took us a while to ID him but one of the photos we took, shows that he actually has a light eye, but this photo makes it look dark.


A male Bufflehead. Like the Pied-Billed Grebe, he was the only one of his kind that we found.


This is a domestic duck. Obviously some type of Mallard. I don't normally photograph the domestic ones, but he was just too pretty not to take a picture of.


An American Wigeon. There was well over 100 of them at the lake. There were 4 separate flocks of them with up to 50 birds in each flock. Such gorgeous waterfowl!


One of the smaller flocks of Wigeons. What a beautiful day it was!

Mt. Tabor, Marine Drive and the Backyard

Wilson'sWarbler


Swainson's Thrush

Townsend's Solitaire. They don't belong in the valley

A Western Kingbird along Marine Drive

A pair of Turkey Vultures sitting along Marine Drive

Same Vulture

His mate

A female Western Tanager

A male Western Tanager

Audubon's Warbler taking a bath

Savannah Sparrow

A female American Kestrel

One of the Opsrey, who has a nest on 148th and Marine Drive

Do you recognize this hawk? I figured he was pretty distinguishable from his missing feathers

A Black-Headed Grosbeak