Michelle and I went to Vashon Island for her birthday in June. We stayed at a cottage up near the very top of the island. It was beautiful. We stayed in Washington for 3 days and had a great time! We also went down to Des Moines, WA and took a charter out to go whale/wildlife watching. Also awesome!

So here are some of the photos we took. Hope you enjoy!


Point Defiance is where we ferried over to the island from. Gorgeous views from there.


Here is the view from our cottage. We could see for a hundred miles in every direction.

We took a walk down to the beach our first morning there and this is one of the first birds we came across, just down a couple of hundred yards off the main road on an overgrown path. A Barred Owl! Not only a Life List bird for us but also the first owl, of any kind, that we have ever seen in the wild.

We were walking down the path and we turned around to watch a Jay flying by and... BAM! It was only about 10 feet from where we stood. Is was amazing!

It didn't fly away or make a single sound. Just sat there watching us closely. We couldn't believe it.

Here is a Great Blue Heron (he was in full breeding plumage) preening itself on a jetty near where we launched the charter boat.

Here is a different Heron along the docks just outside of Olympia, WA.

A Tufted Puffin. Another Life List bird for us!

This is a (grainy) photo of a Rhinoceros Auklet, not yet in breeding plumage.

Another of the Auklet.

A very friendly Pigeon Guillemot!

Here is an Osprey that we watched fly lazily down the waters edge, then suddenly, turned it's wings downward and plunged into the water. It actually submerged itself completely and stayed under water for 3 or 4 seconds. Then it popped up and slowly hoisted this fish, what looked like through the binos to be a flounder, and flew into the tree line. It was so cool to watch!

Another photo of the same Osprey.

Not far from the Osprey was this Kingfisher fishing just off shore. It was very interesting to watch exactly how he gets his fish.

On the docks where the charter was moored.

Michelle woke up that first morning (about 4:30am) and looked out the window to find this little doe!

She knew we were there but she stayed around for quite a while. There eventually ended up being 4 deer total. The Doe and Stag and two fawns. I want to go back!

That dark mass in the center of the photo is actually a juvenile Hump-Backed Whale! We saw him (or her) a few times out on the water. New one for us as well!

Here is a Harbor Seal. There were about a dozen of them playing and sunning pretty close to the boat.

The black and white fin you see sticking out of the water there is a Dahl's Porpoise! There were also quite a few of these guys playing in the boats wake.

Here is a strange little Chestnut-Backed Chickadee that has been coming into the yard for a while now. There are 2 that visit that have these odd, dirty looking marks. Any ideas?

Same little guy.

Here's the other one. They look pretty similar but, after watching them for a while, we can tell them apart.

A Cooper's Hawk that swooped in the other day.

Such gorgeous birds!

In the left corner we have: Cooper's Hawk! and in the Right corner (actually, right hand side about half way up) we have: Rat. See the little gray spot on the right hand side?

About 30 seconds after this photo was taken our cat Gem (on the ground) jumped straight up in the air for the Cooper's. He just lazily flew off with no harm done. We were actually worried that he might decide to take her for lunch.

An orange variant House Finch on one of our many thistle sacks. He was a vibrant orange!

Most of the birds in the yard are happy to just drink out of the bird baths the "normal" way. But not the Lesser Goldfinch. They will line up on the drip lines (we have two) and wait their turn to slip down the spout and drink the drops coming out. Very fun to watch.

My personal favorite American Kestrel photo that we have taken. He was a very inquisitive little fellow.

Here is a photo of about 30-40 Crows attacking a local Red-Tail Hawk. They don't ever seem to bother any of the other hawks in the area. Just the Red-Tail. The Red-Tail never seems to notice all of the Crows, though. Good for him!

Some of our favorite pics in the last month

Hello again! Sorry for not posting in such a long time. We miss all of you quite terribly.

I have to get this off of my chest before it crushes me. I (this is Seth) have been an alcoholic for many, many years (almost 20, in fact). It has quickly progressed over the last 7 or 8 years and in the last 2 years it has become an obsession. Everything became second to alcohol, including the birds. I finally hit my rock bottom 17 days ago and I am now in recovery. Actually, as I write this, it is now day 18. I am attending A.A. meetings daily and I feel like I have been given a new life and a new start. I don't know why I feel the need to share but I felt driven to do so.

My point is is that I am now, more than ever, devoted to these little birds that we call friends, and hopefully you will see that reflected in our blog postings. We will try to update as much as possible and I appreciate all of you that are still hanging around.


Two juvenile and one adult Black-Capped Chickadee


This is one of a family of 4 Black-Capped Chickadees that have been coming into the yard the last week or so. 2 definite juveniles!


Here's one of the juveniles trying out a thistle sock! He (and the other juve) have been on just about every feeder in the yard.

Just a cute shot.

The Red-Breasted Sapsucker showed up about 3 days ago! He's 2 months earlier than last year for the yard.

Another shot of him in flight. I took about 100 photos trying to capture him in the air. Thank God for digital cameras!

Such a gorgeous bird

Male Downy Woodpecker. He first showed up this year on June 5th. That's the same day last year that he first showed up!

This Flicker made the House Sparrow a little too uncomfortable.

One of the resident Yellow/Red Shafted hybrids that we get all year long.

Such awesome little guys...

...and girls!

A shot of a Bald Eagle through the back of a waterfall. We just thought it was kind of cool.

A little bit of a closer shot of a different Bald Eagle. This one was at the Oregon Zoo (so what if we cheated!)

A vibrant little American Goldfinch. We had dozen and dozens of them in the Winter but only in ones and twos this Summer.


The Evening Grosbeak is still hanging about.


Stealthy little buggers they are.

Here's a female Black-Headed Grosbeak taking a bath the other day.

She was going to town in the water!

Here is a juvenile Male Black-Headed Grosbeak. Such wonderfully patterned feathers.

Another of the BH Grosbeaks we get on a pretty regular basis.

Another Juvenile.

They visit quite a few different feeders.

But they really like the apple trees.

The Bushtits have been gone for a couple of months but about 2 weeks ago they came back in full force!

A Northern Shoveler

A baby Robin...

...and another...

A Juvenile Bald Eagle on Vashon Island. We took a trip up there for a few days in June for Michelle's Birthday (the 21st). If you have never been, it's definitely a must see!

Here's the young Eagle sitting in tree along the beach of the island. I will be posting more photos of the Vashon trip in the next day or so.

A juvenile Cowbird. There are 3 babies that come into the yard. All are in different stages of plumage.

Here's another juve Cowbird. Pretty cute, actually.

Here's the same guy eating from a thistle feeder. He sat there for quite some time and seemed to enjoy the meal. Since Cowbirds do not build nests and subsequently have other species raise their young, we assume that this little guy's parents must be of the Finch persuasion.

A young Scrub-Jay. We watched his mother come into the yard for weeks, grabbing suet chunks and then flying away. We presumed that she was taking the suet back to a nest. then, about a week ago, we noticed to juvenile Jays in the yard. They tried almost every type of feeder and food that we have but they ended up preferring suet. We were quite amused.

One of the juveniles.

Another one eating suet.

Fluffy-butt alert!

Poor lil' Jay thinks he's a Flicker or something.

Checking out the garden.

A resident Male Anna's Hummingbird.

A resident female Anna's.

A female Rufous. We can never seem to grab photos of the male!

Another Rufous.

A White-Crowned Sparrow, also from Vashon Island. There were quite a few of these guys up there.

Here is another one, just outside the cottage we were staying at. Such wonderful singers.

A Male Western Tanager. We sure hope that they stick around for a while!