I Used to Hate Birds

An article about the 10-year challenge popped up while I was trying to think of ideas for a 10-year blog anniversary post.  The premise is simple: post a photo of yourself from 10 years ago next to a current photo of yourself.  Perfect.  Here is the bird blog version. 

Birding in 2009...  The main difference between then and now is that then I didn't know I was birding.  Yes, I was going out and taking lots of photos of birds and yes, I started this blog specifically to keep track of what I was seeing (and share it all with my mom who loves birds).  But I didn't know birding was a thing.  I had no idea what a life list was, or a county list, or eBird or OBOL or any of that. 

Also, I ignored small birds for the most part.

Fall 2009, Jackson Bottom Wetlands

When I did venture a guess at a small bird I was wrong.  I called this a Savannah Sparrow.  

Bird ID in 2009...  I would open up my Peterson's Guide and make my best guess, throw it on my blog, and wait to see if one of my …

Time to catch up on birds and things out at the coast, starting with our local lake of devils.  There are several main access points to the lake:  Holmes Road Park (close to our house), Regatta Park, East Devils Lake State Recreation Area, Sand Point Park, Devils Lake Campground, and D River Open Space.  Every time we visit the birds are different which keeps things interesting. 

Weird birds, East Devils Lake (10/4/19)

Clark's Grebe, Holmes Road Park (10/4/19)



 Long-tailed Duck with scaup, Devils Lake Campground (10/13/19)



 Black Phoebe on someone's back porch, Holmes Road Park (10/26/19)

The dogs like the lake too. 

A few weeks ago we went up to the clearcuts in our future 5MR and found some good birds, starting with my county Canada Jays. 


A small herd of elk crossed the logging road in front of us.

Elk butts disappearing into the trees

A Sharpie appeared, keeping all the birds out of sight.


 A couple of county Wilson's Snipes started flying around which felt real weird in a cl…