Showing posts with label portland owl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portland owl. Show all posts

Friday, August 10, 2012

A long time coming

We haven't posted in quite a while but here are a few photos from the last couple of months. Recently, and for the first time in our yard, we have had Western Screech-Owls and Eurasian Collared Doves! We are very excited to have these two new additions to the yard!
2 Western Screech-Owls in our Mountain Ash!
Another shot of the owls.
A Juvenile Band-Tailed Pigeon. You can tell it's a juvenile by the lack of a white collar around the back of the neck.
The Eurasian Collared Doves have been daily visitors for weeks now. It's great to see them and a first for our yard!
More Eurasian Collared Dove pics.
During the really hot weather (near 100 degrees) the doves would lay out on the tray and spread their wings. We assume that they were tryng to cool off.
The first photo we ever got of the Eurasian Collared Dove in a neighbors tree.
A juvenile Black-Capped Chickadee. We, luckily, have many nesting in our area.
A Red-shafted/Yellow-shafted Flicker. You can tell that it's a hybrid by the red coloration on the back of the neck.
A Red-Tailed Hawk on our street. It seems to be carrying a juvenile crow.
A Sharp-shinned Hawk on our fence. It was hot and he seemed to be trying to cool down a bit.
Another photo of him.
Such a gorgeous bird!
More shots of the Western Screech-Owl.
He landed on one of our bird houses in the backyard. It is so cool to see them so close to us.
A very curious owl.
They come to the yard, every night, between 9:30pm and 9:45 pm. They definitely own a clock or a very small wrist watch.



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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

Today, Michelle and I decided to go birding somewhere new. We have been all over the place, but we have never made it to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. The rain was coming down and the wind was howling, and that was before we even left the house. I don't know what possessed us to go out into the yucky weather, but we are sure glad we did! 54 identified species today! (Species list at bottom of post)

Not only was the weather perfect, but we saw 2 new Life List birds! The rain was coming down in sheets as we drove out to TRNWR and we were expecting it to be a pretty miserable day, weather wise. By the time we arrived at TRNWR, the sun was out and it was fairly warm. The wind blew all day but not so much that it wasn't enjoyable.

Then, after we left the refuge, we stopped at Vanport Wetlands. We were just in time to see a Bald Eagle hunting the area for some dinner. We saw quite a few types of waterfowl, too.

Then, on the way home, we took Marine Drive. There were quite a few waterfowl along the river and a lot of raptors on the land side, one of the raptors was a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk (pics below). Overall, it was a great day birding and a great day spent together!

Hope you enjoy the photos!


Here is the sign in the main entrance to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.


Here is just one of the countless gorgeous views at the refuge.


After searching the lower area, we hiked up to the Ridgetop Overlook. On the way back down the trail, we both spotted this Great Horned Owl coming in for a landing!


He was gorgeous. This was a Life List bird for us.

He sat there for about 5 minutes and then took off for parts unknown. But, not before we got about 40 photos of him.
A Western Bluebird. We saw quite a few of them on the trail just behind the Refuge Headquarters. Another Life List bird.

Another Western Bluebird.

And one more Bluebird for good measure.
On the way home, we took Marine Drive and found a ton of raptors. This juvenile (notice all the white) let us get so close. Exciting stuff!
One of the 4 bald Eagles we saw today. This guy has just a hint of color on the tail, so we assume that he is about as close to a full adult as possible.

One of the many groups of waterfowl we saw today. This group of Northern Pintails was at Vanport Wetlands.
The 54 species that we positively identified today:
Canada Goose
Cackling Goose
American Wigeon
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Green-Winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Cormorant
Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-Tailed Hawk
Kestrel
Coot
Killdeer
Mew Gull
Herring Gull
Thayer's Gull
Rock Dove
Great-Horned Owl
Anna's Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
Scrub-Jay
Crow
Tree Swallow
Black-Capped Chickadee
Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren
Western Bluebird
Robin
Starling
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (both Audubon's and Myrtle)
Townsend's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-Crowned Sparrow
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Junco
Red-Winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

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