Commonwelath Park and the yard

Today, Michelle and I went out to Commonwealth Park in Beaverton. It was just supposed to be a quick stop, but we ended up being there for quite a while.

Among the variety of birds, were a juvenile Green Heron (who let us get really close) and a Horned Grebe!

So here are some photos from the trip and a few others from the yard.
Good birding to all.


Here is the gorgeous juvenile Green Heron! He has been one of the most elusive birds for us. We catch quick glimpses, but we have never been able to stare at him.


Here he is staring right back at us!


Such a cool looking bird!


Please don't ask how many photos we actually took of this little guy.

Photo 9,215...

Showing off a bit for the camera.

I can't tell you how excited we were to finally find this bird!

A Horned Grebe. We've never found one at Commonwealth Lake before.

A Green-Winged Teal.

A beautiful American Wigeon.

An odd looking American Wigeon among some Mallards.

Here is the odd looking Wigeon out in the lake.

A female Wood Duck.

Some Steller's Jays filling up in the backyard.

A female Purple Finch.

A (blurry) Red-Breasted Sapsucker on the telephone pole in the backyard (yes really, in the backyard).

A first of season Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Audubon's).

More photos from the yard

Here are a few photos from the last week or so. The Band-Tailed Pigeons are still hanging around. The most we counted at one time was 7! It was awesome to see so many at once.

The American Goldfinches are slowly starting to return, but they have lost most of their summer colors and are now the more muted yellows. They will winter with us by the hundreds.

Of note, this last week we saw, not only the Common Nighthawk (see post below this one) but a Pacific-Slope Flycatcher also stopped by! That's only the second Flycatcher we have ever had in the yard.

So, without further adieu, here are a few pics...

We have really enjoyed playing host to these Band-tailed Pigeons.


They are great fun to have around.


They are usually resting atop this telephone pole/wire in the mornings. This pole, strangely enough, is actually in our backyard. Here you can see 5 of them.


Here are four of them in one of our homemade fly-thrus.

One of the more colorful American Goldfinches stopping in for a quick drink. Once they get their bright yellow summer colors we usually don't see them again until the start of fall when their colors are a little more drab.

A female Bushtit. They are coming in the yard 20 or 30 times a day now.

A Lesser Goldfinch snacking on a sunflower leaf.

The Lessers decimate our sunflowers leaves during the summer. They seem to enjoy the leaves as much as they do nyjer seed.

A very friendly House Finch taking a sip.

Common Nighthawk!

We just had a Common Nighthawk circling above the house! This is a life list bird for us and we certainly never expected to see one here. Here are a couple of (really) bad photos we just took.

A long time coming...

Hello to everyone and thanks for being so patient with us. We took a little blogging hiatus for the last few weeks, but we are back and ready to start blogging like crazy.

Here is a collection of photos from the last month or so, and please forgive us, they are not in any real order.

We hope you enjoy the photos and we will be posting more later this week. Take care and good birding!


An Osprey flying right over us at Ridgefield NWR.


A Flicker defending his suet from a Starling.


A juvenile Flicker camping out on a feeder. She wasn't quite sure how to hang on the side.


This photo is of a Cooper's Hawk in our yard. He flew in, and because of the shade, only his eye was really visible. It stood out like a bright, red berry.


We have had a pair of Band-Tailed Pigeons hanging out in the yard over the last couple of weeks!

They seem pretty friendly. They are a little jumpy, but if we sit still, they will hang out for a while.

One of them grabbing a drink.

A juvenile Steller's Jay learning to get 3 peanuts into his throat, just like he's seen the adults do.

A fledgling House Sparrow. Too young to fly, it just sat in this tree in our backyard while the male pitched a fit about us being too close.

A young Pied-Billed Grebe at Ridgefield NWR.

Some fledgling Cedar Waxwings at Salish Ponds.

These were taken a few weeks ago.

The might have been the cutest things ever!

While in the backyard a week or so ago, we were lucky enough to get a couple of photos of a very young Spotted Towhee!

The Black-Headed Grosbeaks have been hanging out in the yard the last few weeks.

Another Black-Headed Grosbeak stopping in for some dinner.

This Black-Headed Grosbeak was snacking on some berries.

We have had quite a bit of Hummingbird activity the last couple of weeks. At least five different birds, both Anna's and Rufous have been enjoying the bird bath. Here is a Rufous taking a bath.

They are such cute little creatures it is hard not to take dozens of photos each time!!

This Anna's Hummingbird has an unusual white spot on the top of it's head.

Another shot of the Anna's Hummingbird with the white patch on it's head.

An Anna's Hummingbird defending it's perch against a Rufous Hummingbird.

A quite moment at the feeder for the Rufous Hummingbird.

We have been loving all the different Juvenile birds coming to the yard lately. This Scrub Jay has learned where to find peanuts!!

He still hasn't quite mastered shelling peanuts yet. He kept dropping them through the bench and having to get another one.

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch with a black oil sunflower in our Mountain Ash tree.

All of the remaining photos were taken at Ridgefield NWR.

This juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron posed quite nicely for us right off the the auto route trail!!

What a sight!!

He watched us watching him holding very still.

A rare site for us this time of year. A Blue-Winged Teal at Ridgefield NWR.

The Blue-Winged Teal being followed by some Juvenile Coots.

A Belted Kingfisher sat quietly for a time allowing for some great shots!!

A female Common Yellowthroat.

A Mourning Dove enjoying the day.

An Olive-Sided Flycatcher at Ridgefield NWR.

Another Flycatcher at Ridgefield. This one is a Willow.

As we were leaving Ridgefield NWR we saw a large flock of unidentified birds. Any clue to what they could be??

A closeup of the same flock.

Some waterfowl off in the distance. Any clue what they might be?

This Red-Tailed Hawk was chasing dinner on the ground.

We couldn't tell what dinner was supposed to be but the Red-Tailed Hawk was determined to catch it!