A week in the yard

Here are a few pics from our yard in the last 10 days or so. Hope you enjoy them and we hope everyone is having a wonderful Summer!

This is one of the resident Anna's Hummingbirds that we are lucky enough to host in the yard. She is pretty tame and sits for lots of photos.


We caught her doing this the other day and we have since seen it multiple times. She just sits there, and every once in a while, she would open her bill, and then snap it shut. Could she be flycatching? It wasn't hot, so I don't think she was panting. Any ideas?


Here she is doing it again. We have tried to find some info on it, but nothing so far has described what she's doing.


Such a gorgeous bird!

Here is a female Rufous Hummingbird. She flew to this feeder as I was standing next to it, photographing a Downy Woodpecker.

Here's the Downy on it's favorite suet feeder.

He also lets me get pretty close. Such cool looking birds.

Such a cute little face!

As I was photographing the Downy (above), this Cooper's swooped into the yard. The only bird to not get out of the yard was the Downy I was taking pics of. He stayed on the suet feeder, frozen stiff. Poor guy.

I backed away from the Downy so as not to scare him out of the tree and into the hawk's view. As I backed away, the Cooper's flew into the tree I was under and about 5 feet from the Downy. If you look close, you can see the Downy of the right side and in the middle is the Cooper's tail. Fortunately, the hawk flew off and the Downy lived to see another day.

2 of the many newly-fledged Scrub-Jays coming into the yard. Notice the all gray heads.

Another one of the fledglings. Very cute and fluffy.

Here is a newly-fledged Robin. There are young ones all over the yard. Jays, Robins, Sparrows, Chickadees, Cowbirds, Cooper's Hawks. It's a great time to be bird watching!

A Black-Capped Chickadee grabbing a snack.

Here are 8 abandoned (we think) Chickadee eggs. The nest box is on the side of the house and we watched them build it for weeks. Then, they just stopped coming to it. So we took it down, thinking we would just find an empty nest and this is what we found! So the box went immediately back up, but we still haven't seen the Chickadee pair going to it. Why would they abandon an entire nest?

New yard photos!

Here are a few recent photos from our yard. The Rufous Hummingbird still comes around everyday. The Juncos, Pine Siskins, Towhee and Varied Thrush are still hanging around. Pretty late in the year for them to be around, but we'll take them!

Here is a very odd looking Bushtit. Notice how brown his head is and how distinctive the line between his head and body are? Is this normal?



A male Anna's Hummingbird at one of our feeders.



2 male House Finches eating some black-oil Sunflower Seed.

A Yellow-Rumped Warbler through our office window. I wish it was more clear, but the rain and double-pane glass wouldn't afford that.


A Townsend's Warbler feeding on the ground.


One of the many Hawks that come through the yard on a weekly basis. This one is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.


A Robin getting ready to bathe.


A Robin bathing!


A small flock of Bushtits.

The return of the Rufous Hummingbird!

While doing some much needed yard work this afternoon, in the much needed sunshine, Michelle and I were loudly buzzed by a (first of season) male Rufous Hummingbird! This is probably the earliest we have seen him. Luckily, we had the camera out in the yard with us so we were ready.

Pictures can not do this little guy justice.


He was the most gorgeous Rufous that we have ever seen.


We are hoping to have many more photo ops with him over the next few months.

A new visitor!

Well, here we are in the middle of the biggest winter storm to hit Portland since 1968. We have 12-14 inches of snow on the ground with 2-3 foot snow drifts, and that's just in the yard. It has been so hectic trying to make sure that the birds have enough dry food. But, they have rewarded our efforts with their company and antics. We are happy to do it.

Not only are we rewarded with their presence, but last night we had a new yard bird!! A Lincoln's Sparrow found his way into the yard and into our record books! He was with us for most of today, as well. He seems to prefer hanging out with the Juncos. That's where we have spotted him on multiple occasions. How much fun!


Here he is! A Lincoln Sparrow! He was pretty small for a Sparrow (about 5.5 inches) and he has that buffy white belly that stands out from a mile away. Similar to the Song Sparrow, but he didn't act like a Song at all. It was actually his behavior that caught our attention. He was very calm and quite. We'll post more photos tomorrow!


Michelle behind a mound of snow in a parking lot just up the street from us. You can barely see her waving from afar.


Mrs. Hummy sitting on her new favorite perch on the back porch.


Mr. Hummy looking as pretty as ever. This was taken through our window so it doesn't do him justice.


A rarity for this yard. Both the male and female on the same feeder. Even when we have 6 Hummingbirds in the yard at the same time, they never feed together.


Lesser Goldfinches waiting for a turn at a thistle sack on the back porch.


Another busy thistle sack under our bathroom window.


Here's a pic (again, through the window) of the sack on the porch.


A wonderful Lesser just surveying the yard.


This poor Lesser had some ice stuck to his cap.


Here's another with ice on her feathers. Stupid freezing rain!


A Nuthatch trying his hand at some frozen suet. We have been switching out the suet cakes a couple of times a day, so they aren't so difficult to eat.


A curious Junco just outside our bathroom window.


A male House Finch fluffed up and looking his best!


A Lesser Goldfinch and the female Anna's Hummingbird taken through our office window.


A Northern Flicker in our icy Lilac.


A frosted Scrub-Jay looking for his next peanut.


Another Scrub-Jay on one of the shepherds hooks. Just below, on the left hook, is a peanut wreath. His favorite stop in the yard.


A Robin bathing. How crazy can the birds be? We might take some preventative measures so they can still drink but not bathe.


Another Robin in our frozen Mountain Ash.


Juncos, a Song Sparrow, a White-Crowned Sparrow and in the back left (the smaller bird above the White-Crowned) is the Lincoln's Sparrow.


This is what happens to birds when they bathe in sub-freezing temps! Starlings are not the brightest of creatures.


The Townsend's Warbler has been visiting frequently during "Winter Storm '08" (that's what the local news channels are calling it)!


Trying to chip away at the suet.


The Yellow-Rumped Warblers are frequently in the yard, too. We're glad they are back for the winter.