Pics from the yard!

Here are a few pics from the yard. We have been busy with our other blog lately and I am really trying to get here and post on a regular basis. We hope you enjoy them and we wish everyone a great Wednesday!

The Yellow-Rumped Warblers are very thick in the yard. Sometimes up to 6 of them at a time.


The Winter Wrens will be departing soon. They are one of the hardest little birds to photograph (photograph well, I should say).


We had 5 Steller's in the yard the other day, too. That's the most we've ever seen at one time.


Look how dark this Junco is. He was pure black. Very cool looking.


Obviously, not from the yard. This was taken at Laurelhurst Park. It's a Hooded Merganser.


I think we have an entire family of Golden-Crowned Sparrows living in our brush pile in the back of the yard.


A Female Northern Flicker


Big flocks of Bushtits have been coming in the yard a lot lately.


Black-Capped Chickadees are always a welcome guest.


More American Goldfinches have been in the yard than any other time this winter.

BirdCam Photos

Here are some recent photos from the BirdCam. I will be posting some "regular" photos tomorrow and talking more about the Great Backyard Bird Count. Until then, you can go here http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and read up about the program. It fun and easy and free! Hope you enjoy the photos.


A Western Scrub-Jay


A Steller's Jay


Female House Sparrow


3 Golden-Crowned Sparrows


White-Crowned Sparrow


Another Steller's Jay


Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Dark-Eyed Junco

Male House Sparrow

And, of course, the squirrels just have to get in on the action!

BirdCam photos

Here are a few shots from our BirdCam from yesterday. Hope everyone is having a great week!

We got lucky with this shot. We captured a male and female House Finch (in the center). Then we have a Song Sparrow hanging onto the brush pile fence (above the female House Finch) and then, if you look closely, you can see a portion of the face of a Golden-Crowned Sparrow (middle right-hand side)


This one is kind of blurry but we loved the House Finch showing off his red coloring!


I think I had the camera a little too close. The Steller's Jay never quite fit in the frame.


But he's still fun to look at.


A Junco (forefront) and 2 House Sparrows above him.

Steller's Jay

I had the rare opportunity to get pretty close to a Steller's Jay. Normally, these guys will shoot out of the yard the second we step in it. But this brave little guy decided to hang around for a few photos. Steller's are a daily occurrence in the yard, but since I have never taken any decent photos of them, I was just excited to post them. They are such gorgeous birds.

He is in a Pear tree, with a Quince growing in between.


He gave me all sorts of good looks at him (or her)


It's funny, years ago, before I was a birder I actually thought these were the males and that the Scrub-Jays were the females. Looking back, I can't believe that I ever thought that, but it seemed normal to me then.


Gotta love the eyebrows.

Varied Thrush

We had our First of the Season Varied Thrush today! This snow storm has given our yard a big boost. We have had 5 First of the Season birds and one Life list bird in the last 2 weeks. We are very excited! The Varied Thrush is supposedly a very shy bird, but don't be fooled, he has lots of friends.

Here he is having a friendly chat with the House Sparrow.


The Thrush isn't as close to the Lesser Goldfinch, but they are still on speaking terms.


Here he is having lunch with a couple of Juncos.


Here he is scouting for food for his buddy the Scrub-Jay.


He and the House Finch are "acquaintances". Personally, I think that they are just jealous of each other's colors.


And sometimes, he just likes his quiet time.


Just a little time to sit back and reflect on the situation.


But after a while in solitude, he gets a little lonely and starts calling for his friends. See, not so shy after all!

long, winter nights

Here are some more photos from last weekend. You can bet that we are going to take a buncha, buncha pics this weekend, especially if it snows!! It doesn't sound like it supposed to get above 32 degrees until Thursday or even possibly Friday. Brrrrrrrrrr.


A hungry Cooper's Hawk sitting on our back fence. The feeder sat between she and I, so I thought "what the heck" and took the pic. As soon as I stepped around the feeder to take more photos, she took off. They are much more skittish than the Sharp-Shinned Hawks.


A Northern Flicker deciding to eat some black-oil sunflower seed instead of his usual suet. Variety is good!


Lessers, Lessers everywhere. The Lesser Goldfinches have really increased their numbers lately. We'll see if they stick with us through this arctic blast we are getting!


The Scrub-Jays are really hitting the suet hard. Much higher fat content (not to mention that it's chock-full of nuts) makes for happy Jays!

This is what a Pine Siskin looks like when it's 35 degrees and windy. He stayed there, fluffed out, for a while then flew to a feeder. I kept an eye on him to make sure that he wasn't showing signs that he was sick. He didn't seem to be at all. Just a chilly, little Siskin.

The Steller's Jays are increasing in number, too. They are also getting pushier and not scaring off so easily. Good for them!

Such great patterns on their feathers!

Here are some photos from our picnic at Chapman School to see the Vaux's Swifts. There are also two videos. Nothing too great but you can kind of get the idea about how many Swifts show up to roost. If you get the chance you really should take a couple of hours and head over there. It's at 26th and NW Pettygrove. Be forewarned, a lot of people show up. It is very noisy (with all of the kids) and some people don't really seem to be interested in the Swifts at all. But still, it's a must see. It was incredible to see that many birds at one time. The Peregrine Falcon also made a few appearances!

There are also some photos of recent activity in the yard. As always, we hope you enjoy.


Just a couple of photos so you might get an idea about how many birds there are.


Somewhat hard to see but every little black spot or fleck you see is a Swift.


another shot


Scrub-Jays getting peanuts to bury for the wintertime.


The Steller's Jays have just recently come back into the yard. It's so nice to see them again.

This one, I believe, is a juvenile.

They come and knock the peanut container over and then proceed to bury the nuts about 5 feet away.

As the peanuts get fewer, the Jays get closer to the porch. Here's one just off of the patio.

The juvenile Steller's with the bad haircut.

One of the Lesser Goldfinches that keep us company throughout the year.

A Northern Flicker looking in the backyard.

A juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow


Here's video number one. In the last few seconds of the video, a Peregrine Falcon will come from behind the chimney and the video will end when the Falcon is in the middle of the frame.

Here's another video of the funneling that they do.