A few photos

Sorry that we haven't been posting lately! We have been crazy busy with our suet company and our community organization. We are going to be gone all week, so we wanted to post a few photos before we went. We're traveling to New York City this week, so when we get back we will post some east coast birdies! Hope you enjoy!

Also Scott Lukens, the owner of the Backyard Bird Shop chain here in the NW, was on Garden Time TV this week and he mentioned NePo Suet! Thanks Scott! You can watch the short video here: http://www.youtube.com/v/QIt7tcKnaKk

One of our resident male Anna's Hummingbirds on his favorite feeder.


A Townsend's Warbler taking a quick bath.


A small flock of Bushtits bathing together!


A Brown Creeper in our Mountain Ash tree! This is a very rare visitor to the yard!



A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet taking a dip!

The first of season Spotted Towhee!

Commonwealth Park

We went to Commonwealth Park in Beaverton yesterday for a quick bird walk. The weather was pretty miserable, but the birding was awesome! We saw First of Year Osprey and Hutton's Vireo, as well as a ton of other birds. This is a great place to bird and is easy on the feet.

Hope you enjoy!

An Osprey takes a fish in the lake, scaring the you know what out of a flock of American Wigeons.


The Osprey then flew right over our heads, carrying the fish.


A Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Myrtle variety.


This Cedar Waxwing flew into the tree we were standing under. It was great to see it so close up.

A Coot displaying his wonderful feet for us.

A Red-Tailed Hawk scanning for some lunch.

There were a lot of Red-Winged Blackbirds all over the park.

A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet flitting in and out the shrubs.

A Song Sparrow trying to hide.

This Song Sparrow living up to it's name.

Yesterday's list (41* species):

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Gadwall

Eurasian Wigeon

American Wigeon

Mallard

Bufflehead

Pied-Billed Grebe

Osprey

Northern Harrier

Red-Tailed Hawk

*Possible* Rough-Legged Hawk

Coot

Killdeer

Rock Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Downy Woodpecker

Flicker

Hutton's Vireo

Steller's Jay

Scrub-Jay

Crow

Tree Swallow

Black-Capped Chickadee

Bushtit

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Bewick's Wren

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Robin

Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Audubon's and Myrtle)

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Junco

Red-Winged Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

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!

It's been too long...

Good morning to all! Sorry that we have not been up on the proverbial ball lately! We have been super busy with getting our suet company, NePo Suet, going and we haven't been birding nearly as much as we would have liked to (but isn't that always the case?).

So, without further ado, here are some bird photos and we hope to be a little better about posting in the future!

Female Anna's Hummingbird


Yellow-Rumped Warbler grabbing some suet.


We have seen the Spotted Towhee in our backyard quite a bit this winter!


The Sharp-Shinned Hawks are still regular visitors.

An Orange Variant House Finch.

A Red-Shafted Flicker having lunch with us!

An Orange-Crowned Warbler snooping around the backyard.

The Red-Breasted Nuthatches seem to be in smaller numbers this year (at least for us).

A beautiful male Lesser Goldfinch.

A Chestnut-Backed Chickadee hanging out on a sunny day!

A few photos

Here are a few photos from around the yard over the last few days. As always, we hope you enjoy them!

One of the 9 Band-Tailed Pigeons that are still coming in the yard everyday. Very unusual for this time of year.


The local Bewick's Wren grabbing a bite of suet.


One of the many Yellow-Rumped Warblers we get in the yard. This guy came in when we had our unexpected snow storm a couple of weeks ago.


Robins snacking on one of our Pyracantha shrubs. They really enjoyed the berries.

They picked this bush clean in just a couple of days. Notice the center Robin is just about to swallow a berry?

Another Yellow-Rumped Warbler, same feeder.

We noticed this Song Sparrow on our fence the other morning. What really caught our eye was the spider web stuck to his head.

Oregon Coast Trip

Michelle and I went to the coast for a few days for her birthday. We stayed in Cannon Beach with Haystack Rock just outside of our room. It was an incredible trip and we nabbed quite a few new Life List birds.

We were lucky enough to have some of the lowest tides of the year during our stay. The tide was so low, that we could walk behind Haystack Rock.

The trip was capped off with an amazing sight. We stopped at Fort Stevens, parking lot C, and were treated to 10,000+ Brown Pelicans and 1000's more Brandt's Cormorants. It was phenomenal!! I wish the pictures we took could convey what we saw. It was the most incredible sight. Huge flocks of Pelicans flying in and out and 1000's just sitting on the beach.

We hope you enjoy these photos and, hopefully, we won't wait so long in between postings. Take care and good birding!


A Greater Yellowlegs at the north end of the Necanicum Estuary


We found this Turkey Vulture in the woods here, partaking in some squirrel dinner. It was odd to see the Vulture in the forest.


See the hole? Now look to the right and you can see a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee getting ready to fly into it with some food in its' bill.


On the south side of Necanicum Bay, there were tons of Wilson's Warblers chasing each other through the woods.


We tried to ID this guy we found at Seaside Cove but we couldn't come up with an answer. Any ideas?

We found a couple hundred Brown Pelicans at Seaside Cove. It was awesome.

This is a photo of tons of Heerman's Gulls at Seaside Cove. There are a few other gulls thrown in, but the majority is the Heerman's. Life List for us!

A Pelican eating a fish. See it in his pouch?

The gull in the center is the Heerman's.

Pelicans everywhere!

Hundreds more Pelicans at Ecola State Park. There are also Cormorants, Murres, and Gillemots, too.

More of the same!

And still more!

We have never been so close to harlequin Ducks before. We found these at the base of Haystack Rock. They are such incredible looking birds!

2 Western Gulls with Starfish in their mouths! The extremely low tide made prime dining for the gulls.

A nesting Western Gull on Haystack Rock.

A shot of Haystack Rock with Pelicans flying along the sea.

See all the birds in the air? This is what happens when a Bald Eagle swoops in on the Rock.

Here goes the Eagle after successfully nabbing a Common Murre. He few right over our heads with it in his talons.

A Western Gull and one of the millions of Starfish in the rocks in Cannon Beach.

Two more Bald Eagles sitting behind Haystack Rock.

Nesting Tufted Puffins!! They are such cool birds!

3 more Puffins. Their colors were so striking.

During a small rain storm, the rocks in Cannon Beach looked gorgeous. There are 2 Bald Eagles sitting atop the rock in the back.

Haystack Rock without any water surrounding it. It was a very odd sight, but a great birding opportunity.

This Common Murre was kind enough to land close to us.

Nesting pelagic Cormorants. We saw 100's of nests all along the coastline.

A Western Gull and a Black Oystercatcher. Great looking birds!

Another Oystercatcher. It's amazing, with those bright red eyes and bill, how hard the are to see sometimes.

In Tillamook, there is a place called the Blue Heron Cheese Company. It's a great shop and we always stop in when we are in town (try their smokey garlic mustard!). This time, as we were walking in, we spotted this nest just above the front door.

As we got closer, we realized that it was a nesting Barn Swallow. She didn't care at all about the people walking in and out of the store. She just sat there, presumably on eggs.

Inside this circle is 3 juvenile Peregrine Falcons! This is at Cape Meares. The volunteers had a couple of scopes set up for people to look through. It was a great sight and one that we won't soon forget.

More nesting Pelagic Cormorants at Cape Meares.

This photo is of lots of Marbled Murrelets and 1000's of Common Murres. We couldn't fit all the birds into a single photo. We tried many times with no luck.

A singing White-Crowned Sparrow. The sparrows were all up and down the coastline.

A bunny at Cape Meares.

Just off of the parking lot at Cape Meares, we were treated to a couple of newly fledged Chestnut-Backed Chickadees! Notice the yellow still on the bill. This little one couldn't have been out of the nest for too long.

3 Black Oystercatchers in Depot Bay.

A Harbor Seal looking for fish in Depot Bay's harbor.

A Whimbrel in Newport. We only saw a couple of shorebirds on our trip.

An anemone in the tide pools back at Cannon Beach.

One of the smaller rocks behind Haystack Rock. The Pelicans and Cormorants loved to sun themselves here.

A Pelagic Cormorant in fight.

This is a side-view photo of Haystack Rock. Because of the low tides, we got further out and close to Haystack Rock than we ever have been able to before.

In the parking lot of our hotel, Barn Swallows were busy gathering nesting material.

Here is one of the views from the viewing platform from parking lot C in Fort Stevens. The coast was lined with Brown Pelicans. There were thousands more just off the shoreline and 1000's more in the air.

We don't know exactly how many there were, but everyone agreed that there were at least 10,000 Pelicans.

The Pelicans were flying right over our heads on the platform.

They are such amazing creatures. It was breathtaking to see so many at once.

1000's and 1000's of Pelicans.

Like we said earlier, the pictures cannot convey the enormity of the sight.

There were lots of Caspian Terns at Fort Stevens, as well.

A view from our car as hundreds of Pelicans fly past the platform and jetty at parking lot C.

A 3rd yr. Bald Eagle surveying the situation in Astoria. He was waiting for the gulls to get some food and he would then chase them and make them drop it, then he would go retrieve the food and eat it himself. Pretty smart if you ask me.