i used to hate birds.

Washington birds.

2012-02-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did a mini-tour of Clark/Cowlitz counties in Washington, looking for a bunch of random birds. I started at Lacamas Lake Park in Camas in search of a Tufted Duck. Of course. Did I find it? Of course not. Did someone find it about an hour after I left? Yep. It's okay though- I managed to find another life bird instead...

An American Dipper! This was one of those birds that I felt I should have seen by now (in the same category as Northern Shrike, Merlin, and freakin Tufted Duck) but hadn't. The best part was that he let me and the dogs watch as he went through his dipper-behavior-repertoire.

He jumped in the water, sticking his whole head underwater...

Then he disappeared altogether for what felt like a long time...

Eventually he popped back up with some sort of slough snack in his mouth..

He brought the snack ashore and splashed it around some more...

When the slough snack turned from black to yellow he deemed it worthy of chowing down (not sure if it was dirty, in some kind of shell, or he had more than one item in his mouth).

Then he flew down the slough. Pretty awesome. From Camas I headed back to Vancouver where I looked for the Northern Mockingbird that's been reported for a couple months now. Amazingly it was exactly where it was supposed to be...

So easy. From there I headed north to Woodland Bottoms to see what was going on. I headed to the farm where there had been Rusty Blackbirds hanging out months ago and was psyched to find one pretty quickly. It took some time to get a photo because the flock kept getting flushed by cars, but eventually got some decent ones.

Man that is one cool bird. On the way back to Portland I figured it wouldn't hurt to do a loop around Ridgefield. Things were pretty tame (and dang it gets crowded on Sunday afternoons!) so I made it a quick trip.

Green-winged Teal

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Good times! I will be heading back to Camas today to try again on the Tufted Duck... Stay tuned.

Tillamook.

2012-02-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

I spent most of yesterday in Tillamook with the dogs, birding the Bayocean Spit and Tillamook Bay Wetlands. Spent a couple hours at each spot. I stopped at the wetlands first and found the parking area full of cars and people, seemed pretty annoying, so headed to the spit instead. Turns out it was a Portland Audubon trip. Ah, well. At the spit the first bird I saw was a Red-shouldered Hawk perched on some driftwood...

From the parking area I could see dozens of Yellow-rumped Warblers flycatching, chickadees flitting about, and Varied Thrushes perching on the tops of trees.

As we walked along the fire road I noticed three Bald Eagles flying together, pursuing a gull...

Looks like they were close to grabbing it, but even with all three eagles in pursuit they never succeeded and eventually just landed on the beach.

The gulls were all doing their aerial-shellfish-bombings on the beach to try to crack em open. This Western Gull kept dropping his in a puddle though, which seems rather ineffective.

We made our way through the trees and over the dunes to the ocean so the dogs could have some playtime. This is the same beach where Ralph lost his off-leash privileges last year (thanks to the goats that seem to have been relocated since). So only Jake got to really run. Ralph just ran in circles on an extra long leash.

On the way back along the spit I could see some shorebirds had gathered. I think it was a mix of Dunlin and Sanderlings but there could be other birds mixed in. They were having trouble settling down.

That was about it for the spit- on the way out I watched this heron making a graceful landing...

Tillamook Bay Wetlands was a new place for me- a huge thanks to Dawn over at the blog, Central Oregon Coast, for the information on how to find it! I was psyched to find the parking area completely empty when I returned, and even more psyched to not see any "no dogs allowed" signs! The sun even started peeking out at the beginning of our walk.

The first birds I saw were tons more Yellow-rumped Warblers with a few Townsend's mixed in...

It was a gorgeous area to explore...

Certainly no shortage of Red-tailed Hawks, ravens, or eagles. My main reason for wanting to visit this area was to hopefully see a White-tailed Kite. No luck, though at one point I saw a Red-tailed Hawk perched in a tree with another bird that I tried to turn into a kite...

I'm still not sure what that bird on the left was... I have more crappy photos of it flying off but still can't figure it out. I saw where it landed and was starting to walk that way when I looked down and locked eyes with a coyote. Dang it. If I had been alone I would have kept going, but with the dogs I don't take chances.

Ah well, so I didn't see the birds I came for (kites and shrikes) but I did have a lot of fun exploring a new area and I look forward to returning soon! A couple of ravens seemed eager to usher me on out of the area...

Good times and tired dogs!

Sauvie Island

2012-02-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

We've been having some amazing February weather lately and on Monday I took the dogs up to Sauvie Island. I was mainly inspired by some great bird sightings, but really didn't spend much time looking for them... It was so nice I took the dogs to the beach to run around and for a hike around Virginia Lake.

Inbetween stops we wandered Rentenaar Road a bit too. There were thousands of Snow Geese along with Sandhill Cranes, Canada and Cackling Geese, and some coots. They were putting on quite a show.

At the end of the road I tried to get a good look at a perched raptor in the distance. It was just too far away, but when it took flight I managed a few photos... I think I'm looking at a Golden Eagle here!

Yes? If so, that's pretty cool... I had only seen one once before down at Malheur. Lastly, this kestrel was perched on a wire the entire time I was there...

It was a great afternoon to spend at Sauvie Island! The only way it could have been better was if the Captured By Porches beer bus was parked at Kroger's (and if Kroger's was open!). Even still, good times!!

Recent birds.

2012-02-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Last week I went up (over?) to Washougal to look for the reported Red-naped Sapsucker. It was being seen at a park along the Columbia River that I had been to before, so I figured it would be a good combo of tiring the dogs and maybe seeing a new bird. It took me an hour and a half before I finally felt confident I had found it. Unfortunately it was near the top of a very tall tree.

This was the best photo I got:

There are two things that make this even more annoying. The first thing being that over an hour earlier I had found a Hairy Woodpecker. I took some photos, then thought I saw a sapsucker but when I tried to find it, kept coming up with that same Hairy. Figured I'd imagined it. But no, nestled among a bunch of photos of the woodpecker was this shot:

The second annoying thing? Everyone else who went looking for the bird seemed to find it within five minutes, about ten feet from the ground. Whatever, at least the dogs were tired.

Hairy Woodpecker

Yesterday morning I wanted to work on my motorless list so I rode my bike out to Broughton Beach just before sunrise.

I was able to add five more birds to my list including Barrow's Goldeneye:

And Common Loon:

I was also able to add Western Grebe and Ring-billed Gull. The scaup were working on their diamond formations:

Eh, not bad. The last bird I added to my motorless list was the Black-crowned Night-Heron. Supposedly there are a couple roosting in their usual spot along the river, but I could only find one. They are pretty adorable when sitting in trees.

I was afraid I was about to witness a gory alligator attack down below this tree on the dock .

Luckily it never happened. Good times!

Ridgefield Birds.

2012-02-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

Alright, so here's part two of my Ridgefield trip on Friday afternoon... Things started off pretty slow so when I came across a gorgeous male Purple Finch, I sat and watched him for like fifteen minutes.

I came across a Red-tailed Hawk in a tree eating something I couldn't quite identify...at first.

Then the prey's leg got loose and dangled in plain view...

Definitely a coot foot. The hawk finished up what it wanted to eat and took a poop:

(poop is that diagonal line in the bottom right that makes the branches look like a triangle)

I found something interesting in the photos I took of the dangling coot bones after the hawk was finished...

Fish hook. Always such a bummer to see, but glad the hawk managed to eat around it. The sun was starting to set but I decided to go around the refuge one more time...

A gorgeous pair of Cinnamon Teals made the second loop immediately worthwhile...

This was when I found the coyotes walking along the dike and heading towards the nutria for the grand battle scene in my last post. Good times!

Coyotes vs. Nutria

2012-02-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Nope, no birds involved, sorry. At Ridgefield yesterday I watched a pair of coyotes try to take down a nutria and fail miserably. I thought I was about to vomit my lunch while watching a nutria get torn in half, but nope. He made a run for it down into the slough. But it was still cool to watch.

And here's the nutria swimming away like nothing happened:

And the bummed coyote:

Got lots more to share from yesterday, but this will have to do for now. Good times!

Random stuff.

2012-02-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

First of all I have to show you something that made me laugh so hard I was crying/choking. Have you looked at my "About Me" section up above? It's boring, but there's a funny photo of me at age 12 complete with bad haircut, glasses, and braces, with a macaw on my arm at Disney World. Ok, that's funny enough, but then I found out I wasn't alone! Check out this recent post on Lauren's blog, Burly Bird! Now I'm curious- are there others???

In other news, Ralph has kennel cough. It's not a big deal but it means I can't bring them to work with me as usual, so we've been going on lots of long walks. On Monday afternoon we walked around Vancouver Lake Park. Nothing too exciting, but I did watch a regular Red-tailed Hawk steal a dark morph Red-tailed's sweet perch...

There were some Steller's Jays around but they never let me get a good photo.

Yesterday I walked the dogs down to Overlook Park. I walk them there all the time but in the winter it's usually after dark or before dawn. A couple weeks ago someone reported Bohemian Waxwings and Common Redpolls in the park, which to me just sounded insane. A few people checked it out and found only thirty Cedar Waxwings.

I found a few more than thirty. Maybe a hundred more?

This tree was just filled with 'em, plus a few goldfinches. I tried to count but got bored. I scanned for Bohemians but the park's resident Cooper's Hawk tore through and scattered the waxwings. What was really impressive was how many came out of that tree on the right. They formed big swarms in the sky and I was pretty blown away.

Some of the waxwings returned to the tree later but not that many.

That was cool, I was able to add Cedar Waxwing and American Goldfinch to my motorless list bringing my year up to 60 species! Sweet.

What else can I share with you today? Oh, my awesome dad picked up a bunch of bird books at an estate sale for me a couple weeks ago and my awesome mom sent them to me last week...

Some will be great for reference while some are just fun to look through... Good stuff. That's about all I have for you today- I will leave you with this cozy Western Grebe from the Ilwaco marina last weekend:

Good times!

Ocean Shores & Ilwaco, Washington.

2012-01-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

I drove up to Ocean Shores on Friday afternoon because I wasn't sure if I'd have another chance to see the Snowy Owls before they leave. Plus I wanted another shot at the King Eider. I caught a gorgeous sunset over Grays Harbor on my way in...

I got a room at the Sands Resort which is just a big motel. I wasn't expecting much, but everyone working there was super nice, the room was clean (and moose-themed), the cable worked, and in the morning someone above my room was throwing food out their window to some deer and gulls.

If only that elderly couple in the next room hadn't gone out drinking and come back to argue from about 2 a.m. till I got up at 6, the place would have been perfect. Anyway. So I got up early and arrived at Damon Point around 7:30 a.m. As I had hoped, the owls were still relatively active and getting settled for their day. Same with the photographers.

Hmm, it was also pretty dark. I walked towards those two dudes slowly because it seemed like owls were appearing constantly. I have no idea how many I saw. It felt like dozens, but probably ten? One owl just couldn't decide where it wanted to sit and changed spots several times (not because of people from what I could tell). It landed near me at one point I took a few photos before he took off again and flew right. at. my. face.

I was not expecting this. This was my only clear shot because I kept peeking above my camera to make sure he wasn't going to smack me upside the head or something. My last shot, though fuzzy, is pretty cool.

Here are a couple more flight shots (since on my last visit they never budged)...

That last owl was flushed by a fellow who did not comprehend another man waving his arms and pointing, indicating the first fellow was about to walk right up on an owl. I had almost done the same thing but saw the guy waving and immediately walked in another direction. People are dumb.

Farther out on the point I met a very nice photographer/birder named Andy who mentioned he was going to be starting a blog this year (he turns 70 this year!) about Damon Point. I can't wait to see what he does because he seemed to have a lot of awesome and creative ideas for it.

I walked back towards the parking area and stopped briefly to scan for the eider. No dice, but I did manage a photo with all three scoters in it- a first for me (the photo, not the scoters).

Ok, I didn't say it was a good photo. I headed back to the car because the dogs were probably getting annoyed (they were sleeping) and drove back to the motel to warm up and refuel. I drove past the golf course and noticed some geese milling about, and sure enough the Emperor was among them...

So awesome. I took the dogs to the beach for some running and fetching and whatnot, then returned to Damon Point intent on finding that eider. The dogs came along and helped. Ok, so they mostly just dug a few holes and Ralph tried to eat various crab body parts.

I found this loon that I think is a Pacific Loon, but let me know if and why I'm wrong [Ah, it's actually a Red-throated Loon!]:

I had walked the dogs pretty far down the beach (away from the point) and scanned all the rafts of scoters, still no eider. We walked back towards the parking area when I finally found her... the Queen Eider.

Finally! She is certainly a beauty. I left Ocean Shores in the early afternoon to drive down to Ilwaco on my way home (ok, not really on the way) to look for the Yellow-billed Loon. Success!

I'll be honest. At the time I wasn't 100% convinced I was looking at the right loon, having never seen one before, and I wandered all over the marina checking out other birds. A pair of Red-necked Grebes had much yellower bills than the Yellow-billed Loon.

At one point while I was walking along the docks a big splash in the water scared the crap out of me... A second later a Common Loon popped up with a crab in its mouth:

He chowed that sucker down.

It made for a nice neck bulge:

And then a victory dance...

It was a great little trip!! Two lifers and tons of other awesome birds, plus two tired mutts. Good times!!

PDX & Ridgefield NWR

2012-01-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

I visited the Snow Bunting on Monday afternoon to see if the rumours were true that it had made some Horned Lark friends. Indeed, I counted ten larks milling about...

The bunting seemed to like the new buddies. Maybe they reminded him (her?) of the homeland.

Yesterday morning I went up to Ridgefield. It rained a little but was mostly dry and even saw a few patches blue sky.

Red-winged Blackbird

At the beginning of the trail to the bird blind I flushed a Red-tailed Hawk who flew off farther down the trail and landed. This caused a Red-shouldered Hawk to start screaming its head off. The Red-tailed eventually flew off and the Red-shouldered stopped hollering. But I still couldn't see it until I reached the blind and it flew off also.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Birds can sure make some bone-chilling sounds sometimes. Back by my car there was a Spotted Towhee sitting on a branch. Out in the open. Preening. I was surprised when it didn't fly off into hiding immediately, but rather plucked a little berry or something off the tree and snacked.

I saw my first bittern of the new year creeping in some grass...

American Bittern

In one of the ponds some geese were bathing wildly and were quite entertaining.

Good times!!

Woodburn.

2012-01-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

It was a good morning. I finally drove the half hour down to Woodburn to see a rare bird. I arrived at the house where it was being seen at 9:49 a.m. The yard was extremely birdy so I (and everyone else gathered under the awning) were quite entertained. I even added a few year birds to my list including:

Pine Siskins, House Finch

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Lesser Goldfinches

Mourning Dove & Eurasian Collared-Dove

There were always Anna's Hummingbirds buzzing around and a flock of Bushtits came through at one point...

There was a giant rat lurking in one of the shrubs, dashing out to steal food once in awhile...

Finally around 11:30, just as one fellow made the mistake of going inside to use the bathroom, the Brambling appeared! The sighting lasted less than a minute as she flew from one feeder to another, to a tree, then back to the second feeder, and then gone... Luckily we were able to alert the bathroom guy in time and he was able to see the bird with the rest of us.

Such a beautiful bird to see on such a dreary rainy day! Oh yeah, and it's my 300th bird!!!! Like I said, it was a good morning. I counted 20 species seen in that yard and may have even forgotten some. Good times!! [I was just reading up on the Brambling in Wikipedia and learned that the bird has also been called Cock o' the North. I will refer to it as such from now on].

Crystal Springs, etc.

2012-01-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a messy week. Snow, rain, floods, muds, ice, slush, wind... We've got it all. It's been a bummer for the most part- the snow only looked pretty in the middle of the night, and the weather wasn't bad enough to get out of working. But definitely bad enough to not go birding. So when I got up today and it wasn't raining I was psyched.

I headed to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden to look for some color in doomtown.

The sun even came out for a bit and Song Sparrows were singing like it was springtime...

Crystal Springs is always a good spot for tame-ish Buffleheads and Wood Ducks...

Even this flicker seemed more colorful than normal:

This afternoon I took the dogs to Vancouver to walk the Frenchman's Bar Trail. There I found this woman on a pink scooter being pulled dog-sled-style by her two huskies:

Can't decide if it's stupid or brilliant. Maybe both. At Frenchman's Bar Park I stared at a large flock of sparrows trying to find interesting ones. I was surprised to find a Savannah Sparrow in the mix, first time I've seen one in winter here...

Three pheasants were prancing across a field, probably on the way to their death.

The last part of our walk there were some serious clouds nipping at our heels despite the blue sky overhead.

I will spare you the photos I took of the road-killed bloody beaver and skip ahead to the bird I found when I arrived home. I got out of my car and saw a bird circling overhead- I tried my best to turn it into a Merlin but I think it's a sharpie [oops, a Cooper's].

Still a great yard bird since I've never seen one anywhere near my house. Good times!

Numero 300.

2012-01-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

Here it is, my 300th blog post (hmm... only according to my dashboard, not according to regular math). Damn it would have been awesome if I saw my 300th bird today. But I didn't. Still stuck at 299. The bird to post ratio is officially askew.

Anyway, I had a great weekend of birds and snow and vegan jalapeno poppers. On Saturday I drove up to Scappoose to look for some birds seen around recently. I was psyched to find a couple of Rough-legged Hawks...

Not much else exciting there. On Sunday I had the privilege of birding with the famous Seagull Steve. I showed him where the Tufted Duck should have been, where some stinky cow bones were rotting on Sauvie Island, and of course the five-minute blizzard at Westmoreland Park. My only success was the Snow Bunting being exactly where it should be.

Snowy Westmoreland Park

At Westmoreland Seagull did manage to give me some guidance on Thayer's Gulls that I will hopefully remember. Here's one:

Also around was this adorable pigeon...

There were a few Canvasbacks out on the pond and a pretty snow-dusted Eurasian Wigeon made things better:

This gull had obviously never applied lipstick before:

How embarrassing. This afternoon I went up to Ridgefield without checking the weather forecast. It seemed calm when I arrived, but then it started snowing like crazy. It didn't stick at least.

Nothing mind-blowing at Ridgefield but lots of nice birds giving nice views in the nice snow. It was nice.

Bald Eagle

Purple Finch

Northern Harrier

Greater White-fronted Goose

That was about it for my weekend birds. Good times!!

Smith & Bybee Lakes.

2012-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

It was a sunny day here so I decided to ride my bike out to Smith & Bybee Lakes to try to add some more birds to my motorless list. I was able to find eight more birds for my list, though still a few easy ones missing.

I was hoping for Varied Thrushes, which I usually find easily there, but instead came up with quite a few Hermit Thrushes. One in particular posed nicely for me...

Kinglets were abundant and I was finally able to add the Golden-crowned, though no good photos. Most of the kinglets I've seen this winter have been Ruby-crowned, and I swear last year it was the opposite.

At one point I was standing still and an Orange-crowned Warbler flew right by my face and landed in a bush next to me.

I saw a few Purple Finches while I was there, including these guys that looked kinda weird and yellow (if they're not actually Purple Finches, let me know!)...

It was a great chilly afternoon... Also added to my motorless list: Belted Kingfisher, Bald Eagle, Common Merganser, and Canvasback. I was stoked to discover a much easier way to get home from that area too- I had no idea this one bike path connected to this other bike path... Anyway... Good times!

Broughton Beach

2012-01-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I took the dogs for our weekly walk along Broughton Beach. I made sure to leave early to catch the sunrise, because as I had hoped, it was freakin fantastic. Again. I have never seen so many amazing sunrises in my life as I have in these first twelve days of 2012.

Right??? Anyway... Every time I visit the area I cross my fingers that I will come across a Short-eared Owl. Today I had success! We were walking along the trail just below the bike path directly into the sun when suddenly Jake gave a little hop and the owl flew up from just in front of us...

The combination of numb fingers and excitement gave me a nice series of blurry photos that I will now share with you.

The owl continued to fly west along the river then south to PDX airport and landed in the grass. A little while later we were walking back along the bike path and saw a Red-tailed Hawk cruising low along the grass. It eventually caused the owl to fly up and there was some sort of interaction that resulted in them both flying off in opposite directions.

Hawk in lower left, owl in upper right (duh, what do you mean you can't see them??)

Shortly after the hawk flew off to an airport sign to perch, a guy in a little green PDX Wildlife truck cruised towards it and started setting off flares to displace it.

That was about it for excitement on our morning walk. The usual pipits, scaups, goldeneyes, crows, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were around too. Good times!!

Ridgefield NWR & Vancouver

2012-01-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

I've done a little birding the last couple days though it's been rather chilly and foggy outside. Yesterday morning I went up to Ridgefield. One of the best birds I saw was a female Common Goldeneye:

Certainly not a rare bird, but I had never seen one at Ridgefield before. A Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a pole in one of the ponds and seemed to be nodding off...

In one of the ponds where there are normally snipe mucking around, were instead these dowitchers:

Long-billed? Anyway, another first for me at Ridgefield (I think..) was a Red-breasted Sapsucker:

There was no shortage of harriers at the refuge- I liked these two harriers plus an eagle or something in the fog:

On my way out a couple of young Bald Eagles looked like they were play-fighting over the water with lots of synchronized flying.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning I visited Marine Park in Vancouver, trying to find the reported Tufted Duck (which would be my 300th bird). Failed. The flock of scaup the bird is with was staying just around the corner from the park, both days. Boo. I did find eight Barrow's Goldeneyes hanging out yesterday:

Yellow-rumped Warblers were frolicking (yes, frolicking) along the shoreline...

And this morning I felt a little awkward when I stumbled upon a crow bath party...

Ah well, it's a cool little area to explore with nice paved trails and beaches where I can walk the dogs around. Hopefully the scaup flock will move around a bit so I can find the Tufted later this week. Good times! Rawr!

Squirrel vs. Suet

2012-01-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

As you may recall from my new year's post, I started making my own vegetarian suet cakes. I realized quickly that in addition to attracting hordes of starlings, it also attracted a squirrel which never happened with the old regular suet. I tried hanging the suet from a long hook so the squirrel couldn't reach it and at first it was successful. The squirrel was confused.

Confused squirrel.

He ran around the tree trying to find an angle to approach the suet from. He briefly considered if he could somehow get onto the trash can...

Nope. He eventually gave up that day and just waited for the starlings to drop stuff. But the problem with my one tree is that it's some kind of willow (I think) and the branches all grow up, not out, so when I hang something it usually isn't too far from the trunk. Today the squirrel finally made it onto the suet with lots of interesting acrobatics.

I let him go nuts. I figured he earned it this time. Plus it's apparently either him or the starlings who are gonna win, and the squirrel is cuter.

Ah well. I will try to repair my upside down suet feeder soon so maybe I can cut back on the starlings. Good times!

Motorless!

2012-01-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

I set out this morning on my bike to try to add some more birds to my new motorless bird list... I figured I would go see the Snow Bunting that continues to enjoy a random parking lot near the river, then see what else I could find. Oh, and it was a gorgeous morning.

The Snow Bunting was exactly where he was supposed to be:

I added several more species to my list along the Columbia, but I was surprised I couldn't find a Bald Eagle or a loon. I suppose, that's just another reason to get back there soon. My next stop was the Columbia Childrens Arboretum. It was my first time there and I was not disappointed.

There was one patch of the park that was super birdy- juncos all over, kinglets flying directly at my face, creepers creeping, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch going to town on a pinecone:

This Downy Woodpecker was super busy being adorable:

On my way out I heard a familiar buzzing and looked up to find a hummingbird at the top of a tree...

It was a great morning- ended up adding 22 more species to my motorless list which is only motivating me to get out and find more. Good times!

Hola, 2012.

2012-01-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

I've had my share of New Years Eves full of debauchery and bad decisions, but this year I decided to stay in and just watch bad movies. I woke up early and took the dogs over to Broughton Beach for one of the most epic sunrises I've ever seen.

I was hoping for Short-eared Owls along the bike path but no luck- the airport was shooting off flares and other loud boomy things almost constantly for about an hour (I just found this article suggesting why they were going overboard with it). The bird I was most psyched to see was a male harrier cruising by...

One of my plans for 2012 is to stop buying suet. I've found some recipes to make your own vegetarian suet online and decided to try one out yesterday. I used just four ingredients: shortening, peanut butter, rolled oats, and cornmeal. I mixed up a cup each of cornmeal and rolled oats with half the jar of peanut butter and some scoops of shortening. Then I pressed it into a baking dish and refrigerated it overnight.

I broke down the cost to make this batch and it was about $4.13 and it seems to make about 3 "servings." Half of that cost was the peanut butter because I bought it at New Seasons and it was all organic and expensive. Anyway, I cut out a square this morning and put it in my freshly scrubbed suet feeder to see what happened...

A flicker enjoyed it briefly, then the starlings took over and fought over it for two hours till it was gone. And a squirrel licked up the crumbs. Hmm.

This afternoon I decided to follow up on another plan for 2012: more motorless birding. I rode my bike out to Vanport Wetlands and Heron Lakes Golf Course to add some great birds to my list. The Great Horned Owl at Vanport was sitting on her nest:

At the golf course I found what I think are Mew Gulls (based mostly on my first impression of it being a rather adorable gull):

I had scanned the goose flocks for half an hour when a couple of other birders showed up, and found both a Snow Goose and the Brant in five minutes. Dang it. In my defense, both birds had just walked out from behind a hill, so it wasn't totally my lack of skills.

I was psyched- both birds are awesome for a motorless list.

Seems like 2012 is gonna be a good one...

Adios, 2011.

2011-12-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time to do what everyone else seems to be doing- wrapping up the year with some reminiscing and positive thoughts for 2012.

I'll start by saying this year was alright for me. Some things sucked but some things were totally awesome. Like the birds. I saw some awesome awesome birds this year. Wanna know my favorites? Ok, who doesn't love an end of the year top ten list??

Favorite lifer #10: Virginia Rail

Ridgefield NWR, March 2011

Favorite lifer #9: Western Kingbird

Sherman County, August 2011

Favorite lifer #8: Ruddy Turnstone

Seaside Cove, August 2011

Favorite lifer #7: Tufted Puffin

Cannon Beach, June 2011

Favorite lifer #6: Lazuli Bunting

Powell Butte, June 2011

Favorite Lifer #5: Baltimore Oriole

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (Wellfleet, MA), May 2011

Favorite lifer #4: White-eyed Vireo

Norman Bird Sanctuary (Newport, RI), May 2011

Favorite lifer #3: Sooty Grouse

Mount Rainier, October 2011

Favorite lifer #2: Snowy Owl

Ocean Shores, December 2011

And, finally, my most favorite lifer of the year: the White-headed Woodpecker!

Sisters, Oregon, September 2011

Dang those were some amazing birds!

If you care about numbers, then I will say I did not make my goal of 300 on my life list this year... If you count the Ruffed Grouse, White-winged Dove, and Gambel's Quail (from my blog-o-versary post) I am at 299. That's 95 new birds this year! Woot! My year list stands at 281, not too shabby...

What's on my agenda for 2012? I have some general goals of driving less, motorless birding more, being kinder to the planet, all that hippie crap. As for trips, plans are made to be broken so I prefer to wing it and keep you surprised!

Happy New Years!

Ridgefield NWR

2011-12-30T17:22:00.000-08:00

Man it's been nice not working all week. I've had time for all sorts of things like making pancakes for breakfast and hot dice. At Ridgefield I usually have some time constraints, either having to go to work or the sun setting. Today there was none of that nonsense.

First up this Bewick's Wren had absolutely no problem telling me just how irritating he found me to be:

A heron pinching its own butt:

In the forest there was a Red-tailed Hawk perched in every other tree, or so it seemed. I think this is the first one I've ever snuck up on- he seriously jumped when he noticed me...

A coot army has been amassing in the slough through the forest, drafting any duck that gets in the way...

There were many Bald Eagles around. I watched a couple young ones for about half an hour hoping they would do something cool, but they never did. An adult flew through at one point and they just watched.

It was interesting to watch the ducks after the eagles settled on the ground. Mallards swam right by them, and a Bufflehead nearby I thought for sure would be lunch. Not to mention a pair of Cinnamon Teals snoozing in the grass. I was biting my nails! But no, nothing happened.

Some Greater White-fronted Geese were mixed in with the Tundra Swans...

I watched a pair of coyotes hunting the fields. The one closest to me was sort of depressingly unsuccessful. He already looked a mess, but to see him fail with every pounce was just a bummer. His partner was doing much better, and had a much healthier-looking coat.

After awhile both coyotes took off running to the far side of the field where I saw two ravens flying off. I wonder if they were looking for their leftovers? One raven landed awkwardly in a tree- lots of flapping was involved before it finally settled.

That was about it! A nice leisurely trip with only a couple small bouts of rain. Good times!

Birding fail.

2011-12-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

I set out yesterday morning on an adventure down the valley to look for some interesting birds... I did not check the weather forecast. It ended up raining somewhere between steadily and angrily all day long. I took 123 pictures of which I kept seven. SEVEN.

I will jump to the most exciting bird of the day:

It's true. As this crappy photo indicates, the Blue Jay was the best bird of the day. East coasters might be scratching their heads, but here in Oregon we don't see Blue Jays very often. Bald Hill Park in Corvallis was my last birding stop of the day, and the first one the dogs were able to accompany me at. We walked around in the downpour for an hour and a half before finally finding this bird. I whipped out my camera for four quick shots before throwing it back in the safety of my waterproof bag.

I won't go into all the failures I accomplished yesterday, but I will share this photo of a Red-tailed Hawk taking a poopoo at Ankeny NWR:

When all was said and done I realized I had a great time regardless of the rain, the dips, and the long, stinky, wet drive home. It was just so ridiculous. The icing on the cake was getting home and finding out I had driven RIGHT past a Snowy Owl. Twice. Yep. Can't win em all...

Good times!

Goose Fest 2011.

2011-12-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

I finished up my dog-sitting responsibilities yesterday so I figured it was a good time to go look for some interesting birds that turned up over the weekend. I opted to look for the Brant that someone spotted in the huge flock of Cackling/Canada Geese at Heron Lakes Golf Course.

It was challenging, to say the least...

There were already thousands of geese on the ground and they just kept on coming... I was psyched to find five Snow Geese hanging out close to the road, the most unconcerned Snow Geese I have ever encountered...

While scanning the geese another birder arrived and we chatted a bit. I immediately recognized his name from posts on OBOL but I was surprised when I told him my first name and he knew my last name from posting also. Turns out his high school girlfriend had the same name as me so when he saw my name he remembered it (and was curious if I was her, I think). Funny stuff.

Of the thousands of cacklers, I noticed one with some possible leucism:

Eventually the other birder located the Brant in his scope and I managed to see it just before it disappeared behind a hill. After waiting quite awhile, the Brant emerged once again and gave some fleeting views during which I took a couple awful photos for the record...

Yeah, you can barely see its head in the back row there.. Ah well. On the way out of the golf course I stopped to look at eight Greater White-fronted Geese...

A rather pleasant goosey afternoon.

But wait, there's more!

When I got home that evening I saw on OBOL that an Emperor Goose had been seen at Tualatin River NWR! I headed there first thing this morning and found two birders already had the bird in their scopes. It was really far away...

What do you mean you can't see it??? Ha. The other birders let me get great looks through their scopes. I attempted a couple shots through one of the scopes but I am not so good at that...

Yeah. It's cool. I still saw six species of geese in the last 24 hours... Now I will just wait for a Barnacle and a Pink-footed to land in my yard. Goose fest!

Stickers, cookies, and dogs...

2011-12-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

These are definitely a few of my favorite things. That's why I was sooo stoked to open up my mail the other day and find some new stickers from Burly Bird! A portion of the money from each sticker goes towards bird conservation efforts. Check 'em out! I immediately spruced up my car, my bike (I had a sweet spot created by removing my ex-boyfriend's band's sticker) and my water bottle...

They seem like they're good quality stickers and for a good quality cause too!

I've never really done the whole holiday baking thing but for some reason this year I was itching to bake some cookies and decorate them. So I did that today. My mom had given me some old cookie cutters when she cleaned out her kitchen a couple years ago, so that's what I used. Plus my own interpretation of birds.

They came out alright. Until I decorated them. I am not good with decorations. I will only show you the best ones.

I'm dog-sitting this weekend for my friends who watched my dogs over Thanksgiving. It's been fun, the dogs all get along, and they all beg for cookies equally well...

Luckily my coworker had baked some dog cookies for us so I had something to give them.

Now for some yard birds... I managed to peek out the window while waiting for my cookies to bake and found a couple nice birds, like a Yellow-rumped Warbler:

Juncos have so much variation in coloring that there's always one in the yard that stands out...

I think she got a necklace for Christmas. Anyway, that's all for today, the dogs are getting restless... Plus it's almost time to get festive! Please accept this photo of my lack of cookie-decorating skills as your holiday gift:

Happy Holidays!

Recent birds...

2011-12-22T20:27:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a ton of luck with birds this week due to the combined forces of me being sick and lots of fog, but I have managed to get out a bit. So here's some recent random shots...

Spooooooooooky, Ridgefield NWR

BFF's (Northern Pintail & Mallard), Ridgefield NWR

American Wigeons, Ridgefield NWR

Belted Kingfisher, Ridgefield NWR

Bushtit, Kelley Point Park

Hooded Merganser, Force Lake

A few deer scared the crap out of me at Bybee Lake the other morning. They were suddenly maybe 15 feet away and staring at me. They stopped mid-chew.

In other news, I have almost made my way through a huge pot of black bean portobella stew from that Viva Vegan cookbook. Tasty.

Christmas is coming- time for creepy Christmas cards! When I was a kid I had nightmares that a little boy was peeking in my windows at night. Once it was Freddy Krueger, but usually just a little boy. I am still freaked out by dark windows. My cousin just sent me this Christmas card:

Thanks, cuz. Sweet dreams...

Sigh.

2011-12-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

I was looking for photos of mammals in my old photos and dug up this bird from a hike in Olympic National Park in October of 2008.

A freakin gorgeous rufous Ruffed Grouse. I remember it startling us on our 11 mile hike in the Hoh Rain Forest, though at the time I was constantly looking over my shoulder for cougars. What I wouldn't give to see this bird now...

Man. That was an awesome trip. I think I'll have to get back there in 2012.

Ocean Shores.

2011-12-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

I've been fighting a cold for a few days but I didn't let that get in the way of my plans to finally make the trek to Ocean Shores yesterday. A steady diet of juice, Airborne, zinc lozenges and coffee kept me going strong till about two, when I was too exhausted to bird anymore.

I arrived at the beach around 8:30 a.m. and set off in search of the Emperor Goose right away- it only took about a half hour till I saw a small flock of geese landing a couple blocks away. The Emperor was among them...

I wasn't really expecting much when I went to find this goose, but man was it a looker! I was surprised how gorgeous it is...

After admiring this fine specimen for awhile I took the dogs to the beach to tire them out so I could leave them in the car for the great Snowy Owl expedition. We did lots of running around and Ralph developed a taste for crab legs. They humored me during the obligatory dogs-at-the-beach cell phone photo shoot...

Excuse the poop bag front and center. With the dogs tired out we headed to Damon Point. I walked down the middle of the point to the paved road to the end of the point, and made my way back along the south side. I didn't see a single person once I made it on the paved part and I was afraid I was looking in the wrong spots. Walking along the beach I still didn't see anyone, but finally I saw a white blob peeking over the grass...

I moved down the beach to get a better angle...

Then I noticed a teeny white blob in the distance behind this guy, and then another peeking around a log to the left:

I continued on down the beach, trying not to annoy the owls, and came across a fourth fella...

I was on owl-overload and borderline giddy. I still hadn't encountered a single other person. Out on the water was a small group of my favorite scoters:

White-winged Scoters are certainly the classiest of the scoter lot. I kept walking to a large beachy area of the point where someone was walking around collecting shells or rocks or whatever, and yet another owl was perched. This one was the most out-in-the-open of all the ones I saw...

Yeah. Pretty awesome with the mountains in the background.

As I kept making my way down the beach I finally started encountering more people, more birders, but mostly just folks out with their dogs or beachcombing. I got to a place where I could see most of the point and there were four Snowy Owls easily within view. I am sure at least one of them was one I hadn't seen yet, but I can't be sure about the others since I had walked around the whole area. So I saw at least six!!

Sick of Snowy Owls now? Sorry, I was a wee bit excited. I went back to my car to take the dogs out on the beach for a bit and look for the King Eider. No luck, but the dogs had fun trying to eat every crab leg they came across. I was pretty exhausted by this time and I didn't even bother trying for the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

My last stop was the jetty where I found only Surfbirds and Black Turnstones...

That was it for my trip... Pretty awesome even though I missed some birds I had hoped to see. I made it back to Portland, ate a bowl of soup, and fell asleep on the couch. I feel beat and a little sick but it was totally worth it. Good times!

This week...

2011-12-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to sit still much the last week... I've had lots to do and the sunshine and lack of rain makes me feel like I have to do something outside, regardless of the temperature. Finally last night some rain arrived and I am feeling less guilty about sitting on the couch under a blanket, catching up on last season's Breaking Bad, and consuming as much coffee as I can before work.

Sunday afternoon I took the dogs for a long walk along the Frenchman's Bar Trail in Vancouver. I was hoping to maybe run into the Snowy but did not.. Just flock after flock of sparrows. The White-throated is always a nice treat...

Trees are finally starting to look bare here and I will not miss constantly mistaking falling leaves for birds...

On Wednesday morning the dogs and I hiked up Beacon Rock, an 848-foot-tall monolith about 45 minutes east of Portland in Washington. It was super windy and seemingly bird-free, but the views were pretty nice and it was a good way to tire the dogs out.

Lewis and Clark originally named the rock Beaten Rock but changed it to Beacon Rock later. In 1915 a fellow named Henry Biddle bought it for a buck and built the trails, handrails, and bridges. His family gave it to Washington as a gift so it could be a state park. That's all the history lesson I got for ya, courtesy of Wikipedia.

View of the Columbia River Gorge to the west

View of the gorge to the east

Yesterday morning I took the dogs for a long walk from Broughton Beach. It was the ultimate winter morning, only it's still fall.

No exciting sightings, but some nice birds.. I saw the Snow Bunting for a second as it flew directly over my head, possibly disturbed by the airport canons. A Red-tailed Hawk was perched above the Sea Scout Base. I thought he was doing the old hawk-in-a-pipe trick:

But no...

Across Marine Drive a kestrel was perched with a fist full of breakfast...

Thankfully it's hard to see... But it looks a lot like something I had seen on the ground earlier...

Those human hand-like feet will give me nightmares. Your welcome.

A couple of Western Meadowlarks were standing in the grass right along the bike path...

A couple of crows were kicking off their morning with some High Life, the champagne of beers, and possibly, the breakfast of champions.

In other news I got a new cookbook: VivaVegan! It's filled with delicious-sounding Latin inspired vegan recipes. I tried out the Creamy Corn-Crusted Tempeh Pot Pie (Pastel de Choclo) and it was rather tasty. I omitted the olives and raisins though and it definitely could have used some jalapeños, or as I chose to use, a heaping dose of Tapatio...

Next I'm going to try the Portobello Feijoada: Brazilian Black Bean Stew with Portobello Mushrooms... Yummy!

Motorless Birding.

2011-12-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hey do you remember the motorless birding list I started last July? Yeah, I barely remember it myself. Oops. Oh well, today my car was having a part replaced and I decided to take advantage of the sunshine (and below freezing temperature) to ride my bike to some North Portland spots to add to my motorless list.

My first stop (after the post office) was at Vanport Wetlands. I was able to add several species to my list like Cackling Goose, Canvasback, Green-winged Teal, and Northern Shoveler...

After Vanport I headed over to Force Lake, which was mostly frozen. There were barely any birds around besides this fluffy fluffball of a Song Sparrow:

He seemed to have an itch on the back of its head...

Cutest. Song Sparrow. Ever.

After frozen Force Lake I headed over to less frozen Smith Lake and somewhat frozen Bybee Lake. When I walked down the trail towards Smith I was enveloped in a swarm of juncos, kinglets, chickadees, and Bushtits. I tried to stand still while they flitted all around me.

This kinglet was pulling some stuff off a branch:

Near the blind on Smith Lake were Purple Finches also pulling stuff off branches:

I trudged around the tall grass between Smith and Bybee hoping for one of the shrikes. Nope. At this point I am afraid that if I ever do find one I might just strangle it to death with my bare hands. Not really, of course, but I'm getting frustrated (been looking for over a year at this spot now). The Red-shouldered Hawk was again perched in its usual tree being extremely vocal.

Flying around the area instead of shrikes was a big flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. They seemed to be following me for a bit.

So, not a very exciting outing, but fun nonetheless... My motorless birding list is now up to 60 species and I hope to venture out for more species soon. Good times and a gorgeous day!

Ridgefield NWR & Vancouver Lake

2011-12-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

I headed up to Ridgefield yesterday afternoon to look for the Snowy Owl reported on Thursday. Spoiler: I didn't see it. But I took my time around the refuge and watched some interesting things...

I saw something splashing in one of the marshy areas and when I finally got my bins on it, I realized it was a hawk. I thought maybe it had some prey it was trying to drown... But no, I think it was just taking a bath. It was too far away for decent photos, but here's one anyway:

Nice fluff... Next up was a heron snacking on something I couldn't quite figure out...

I came across another hawk perched in a tree. He flew down to the grass and I thought for sure he had snaggged some prey and then was trying to stomp it to death. When he flew back up to the tree without food I decided there had been no prey. The hawk had merely been doing the raptor version of a polka meets Irish jig meets raindance...

What you can't see in these photos is the stomping. It was quite theatrical. Next up were the hundreds of swans on Rest Lake...

Since I couldn't find the Snowy Owl at Ridgefield I tried to think of where it might turn up next... My first thought was the Vancouver Lake area. It was perfect since I needed to walk the dogs anyway. I drove around the whole area before settling in at Frenchman's Bar Park for a bit.

There were bird tracks in the sand, but definitely not from a Snowy Owl...

I drove over to Vancouver Lake Park next and walked the dogs some more... I was scanning the lake when I caught sight of the moon rising over the trees.

As we were standing there I realized the sun was setting directly behind us and the moon rising directly in front... It was kind of magical and I like to think that somewhere on the moon were the teeny shadows of me, Jake, and Ralph...

So again, no Snowy Owl. Last night when I was having some beers with friends I happened to check OBOL to see if the owl had turned up anywhere. There was a posting that the owl had been seen near Vancouver Lake (at Post Office Lake) at 3:30 pm, which is exactly the time I arrived at Frenchman's Bar Park. Frustrating, yes. But also awesome that I was on the right trail at least...

This morning I took the dogs out and noticed the moon was not as full as it was in the above photos. Hmm. It finally dawned on me that I was watching a lunar eclipse... I took some photos from my front porch when I got home but unfortunately the fog moved in for the grand finale.

At first light I returned to the Vancouver Lake area, drove all the way down to Post Office Lake, and found nothing but gunshots and fog. I could barely even make out the lake. A few other birders arrived as I was leaving. Oh well, maybe the owl turn up somewhere else today!

Good times!

Broughton Beach

2011-12-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

Something just plain crazy happened today in Portland: the sun came out and stayed all day long! I took the dogs for a two hour walk along Broughton Beach this morning and found some great birds...

Did I mention it was freezing?

There were a couple of Western Meadowlarks around...

Crows are always flying around, talking, whatever...

Yellow-rumped Warblers were all over the place.

I was super psyched to find the Snow Bunting that had been previously reported...

He flew over to the pilings at one point and did some sunbathing...

I flushed a big ole flock of American Pipits at one point. One or two usually stay behind to see what I'm up to..

On our return trip we walked along the bike path in hopes of flushing an owl, but no luck. A Red-tailed Hawk was perched on the airport fence in weak consolation...

Down in one of the ponds by the river was what looks like a Least Sandpiper all by its lonesome...

A cormorant was catching some rays nearby...

It was a great walk and the frost-covered scenery was gorgeous...

On the drive home I stopped to check out a beautiful Bald Eagle...

Good times!

Bad photos.

2011-12-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been wonderfully dry, yet terribly cold and foggy lately. I'm not complaining about the lack of rain. And instead of complaining about my god-awful blurry and/or dark photos, I have decided to show them off...

Yesterday I walked the dogs at Kelley Point Park despite seeing a coyote soon after our arrival. The visibility over the Willamette was awful, I could barely even see this boat coming...

There were three Common Goldeneyes in the river... in the fog...

Oh well, the dogs looked good at least...

After the park I stopped by Smith and Bybee Lakes yet again to look for the Northern Shrike. Yet again, I couldn't find it but I found some other foggy birds...

Foggy Bald Eagle

Foggy Purple Finches with their mouths full

Foggy Marsh Wren

Foggy Orange-crowned Warbler

For the Varied Thrush I have both a foggy photo and a horribly backlit photo for your enjoyment:

I took lots of photos at Ridgefield last weekend but most were not that great because of the foggy darkness, so I never posted them.

Foggy Northern Pintail

Foggy Hawk... but what kind?

Foggy Hooded Mergansers

Foggy Red-tailed Hawk

Foggy Coots

And lastly, I welcomed back a yard bird I hadn't seen in months- the hybrid Northern Flicker:

Yay for bad photos!

Weekend Birds.

2011-12-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time out and about this weekend, including three attempts at the Long-tailed Duck on Bybee Lake, a trip to Ridgefield, a two-hour dog walk along the Frenchman's Bar Trail, and stops at Force Lake. You would think I had more to show for it than what I have, but it's almost winter and I take what I can get...

Trip number two to Bybee Lake produced very few birds, but gorgeous lighting as the sun set behind the west hills...

Mallard

At Force Lake on Saturday morning there weren't any unusual birds, but plenty of regulars...

Spotted Towhee

Fox Sparrow

I also saw a super-rare frog perched on a wall near the lake...

At Ridgefield the most interesting thing were the huge flocks of Purple Finches everywhere. Seriously, there were tons. My photos were terrible, but here's one anyway:

This afternoon I made my third attempt at finding the Long-tailed Duck. I didn't see it when I first arrived at Bybee Lake so I kept trekking through the tall wet grass in my awesome new Kamik rain boots. I eventually came across a Red-shouldered Hawk (possibly the same one I saw a couple weeks ago):

When I trudged my way back out of the marsh towards the lake I found two birders who said they had just located the duck. Unfortunately she was spending about three seconds above water followed by a minute to two minutes below... I finally managed some not so great photos:

Oh well, still a new bird! I was stoked. And I was able to repay the two birders by dragging them back into the marsh so they could see the Red-shouldered Hawk also. On my way back to the parking lot Mount Hood looking might fine...

Good times!

Cape Cod III & Plum Island

2011-11-30T08:04:00.000-08:00

The last installment of my Cape Cod birding photos is from Dowses Beach in Osterville, where my dad and I wandered around for quite awhile on Saturday morning.

We followed this Lincoln's Sparrow (aka a Song Sparrow.. Those eastern ones confuse the heck out of me) around for a bit:

I was psyched to see a flock of about twenty Ruddy Turnstones, having only seen one once before...

There were a bunch of Common Eiders way out on the water but one female was rather close to the shore...

On Friday morning my brother and I went to the Parker River NWR on Plum Island to do some exploring. Last year we visited the area in December and most of the road was closed and we had to walk through about a foot of snow. This time it was like 65 degrees.

We scared up some Mute Swans right away:

The ponds along the road were filled with American Black Ducks, pintails, and Gadwalls.

While walking on the beach about a dozen Snow Buntings flew over our heads and disappeared. I was psyched we were able to find one later on near the road.

Definitely one of the cutest birds ever.

Also along the road we came across some turkeys. They didn't seem too concerned with us, maybe because Thanksgiving was over...

Definitely NOT one of the cutest birds ever...

There were a bunch of American Tree Sparrows in the nearby shrubs...

At the end of the road is Sandy Point, where there had been some recent Snowy Owl sightings. There were some Black Scoters out on the water:

And hell yeah, we found a Snowy Owl too!

We walked by it, giving as much room as possible without standing in the ocean (it was high tide), and taking tons and tons of photos...

After awhile we walked up the beach to see if we could find the second one that had been reported but no luck. On our return trip the bird was gone. Then we noticed a group of people and realized the owl had flown to some driftwood right by a viewing platform.

We made our way back to the road so we could get over to the platform also. We got even more great views of the bird from there...

Mind=blown. Awesome awesome trip! Picked up five new birds total, and saw many I rarely get to see... Good times!! Now I can't stop thinking about the SEVEN Snowy Owls being seen at Damon Point in Ocean Shores.... Hmm...

Cape Cod II: Revenge of the Birds.

2011-11-29T21:42:00.000-08:00

Nah. No revenge, just birds. On Friday morning I convinced my dad to drive up to Herring Cove beach in Provincetown. We walked along much of the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and scenery...

Dunlin were splashing about in the water:

Most of the gulls were Herring (shocker), Great Black-backed, and Ring-billed...

I picked up three new birds on this beach, the first of which was Great Cormorants:

I had picked this beach to visit because of the Northern Gannet sightings, and I was not disappointed. Aways offshore there were dozens of them, flying and diving, putting on quite show. A bit distant for good photos, but coulda been worse...

I hate to call that Sibley character a liar, but he says that these guys "catch fish in spectacular plunge-dives, piercing the water with almost no splash." Not so... I saw many a grand splash that morning...

More gannets:

The third new bird was the Fish Crow... I wasn't completely sure about this guy, but he was definitely smaller than the crows I'm used to seeing, with shorter legs. And there was just something different about him.

For some reason this beach had quite a few dead birds on it, and the gulls were more than happy to eat them. These next photos are gross.

I'm pretty sure this gull was yelling "Cannibal!"

Common Eiders are pretty common on the cape, but they are still relatively new and exciting for me.

There was a small group of gulls along one section of the beach with a Bonaparte's Gull...

And a Ring-billed Gull tongue which I found hilarious:

On the way home from Provincetown we stopped at Fort Hill. I was hoping for any of the interesting birds seen recently there, but instead got great views of a billion people. Not sure why, but it was packed. Saw very few birds, but this Red-tailed Hawk was rather accommodating:

And an Eastern Bluebird on the way back to the parking area helped make the visit worthwhile...

Good times! Still more to come...

Cape Cod.

2011-11-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

I got back last night from visiting my family in Massachusetts over Thanksgiving. It was pretty fun, awesome weather, lots of birds, no flight delays or major headaches. My parents' house on Cape Cod attracts quite a few birds, so although it is tempting to skip right ahead to the Snowy Owl my brother and I saw on Plum Island, I will begin with the yard birds...

I only saw one Blue Jay while I was there.

There are lots of Downy Woodpeckers around, and unfortunately they have been working on the sides of my parents' house...

Tufted Titmice are always nice to see...

On Sunday morning there was a small flock of sparrows in their shrubs and I followed them down the yard until they disappeared. The White-throated Sparrows stood out:

There was a sparrow I didn't immediately recognize but I am pretty sure is a Swamp Sparrow:

Full foggy body shot:

Cardinals are also nice to see... Randomly these two chose to pose on the same root for me:

Carolina Wrens do not like standing still.

Nuthatches are also common in my parents' yard...

There were some epic sunsets while I was visiting, like this one:

And this one was good too:

Good times, lots more birds to come...

Gull ID torture, part two.

2011-11-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I figured I did such a nice job butchering my gull ID's yesterday, that I would post some more gulls I photographed at Westmoreland Park.

Ok, so this bird I thought looked good for a Glaucous-winged but it has a light eye which just confuses me... Glaucous-winged X Herring? Something else entirely?

Now is this next one a Herring Gull?

And what the heck is this:

Glaucous-winged X Western?

Ok that's all I have the energy for right now. No more gulls for awhile.

Weekend Birds.

2011-11-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

Most of my birding this weekend revolved around the need to walk the dogs. Sometimes that fact is annoying, but sometimes it works out nicely. Yesterday I walked them along the Frenchman's Bart Trail in Vancouver hoping for some raptors or at least cranes. The best bird is what I'm calling a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk because that's what I felt it was in the flesh (feathers?).

Also in Vancouver on the road towards the lake were two dead beavers and a dead raccoon, all very near each other.

Sorry, guess that's kind of gross. Anyway, this morning was freezing cold so for some reason I decided it would be really fun to walk the dogs at Broughton Beach. I lost feeling in all my fingers and toes quickly, but it was totally worth it for this guy:

Hell yeah, a Short-eared Owl! This is why I was glad the dogs were with me. I had been walking on the trail down the embankment from the bike path when I saw a woman approaching with a boisterous yellow lab off leash. Yellow labs are generally Jake's least favorite creature on the planet so I dragged him and Ralph up the embankment to avoid it, and thus flushed the owl who had been on the other side of the bike path. Yay!

In addition to the nice show put on by the owl, I had great looks at some American Pipits and a Common Loon eating a fish (or something).

Goodbye Loon

This afternoon was beautiful (though cold) and I decided to torture myself with some gull ID practice at Westmoreland Park. Ring-billeds are of course the easiest to pick out, what with them being the cutie pies of the bunch (and yes I just wrote that).

I can usually pick out the Herring Gulls as well, like this fella [Not. It's a Thayer's Gull]:

The trouble arises when I try to find a Thayer's Gull. I am guessing this next bird is one, but obviously I could be totally wrong...

And another shot of just its head:

Please help me understand why this is or is not a Thayer's!

In order to keep my brain from frying I moved on to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden for some utterly relaxing birds that did not confuse nor frustrate me.

American Wigeon

Bufflehead

Wood Duck (female)

This next photo is blurry and the Wood Duck hasn't even gotten all his colors yet, but you can see his tongue!

Alright, and one last fella that was being stuffed full of peanuts by a toddler:

Good times!

Smith and Bybee Lakes

2011-11-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

I stopped by Smith and Bybee yesterday afternoon after tiring the dogs out at Kelley Point Park. The sun was peaking out through all the clouds and it was amazingly dry all afternoon.

There are still at least ten American White Pelicans on Smith Lake...

A Bald Eagle was cruising along the west edge of the lake when a gull decided to chase him across the lake and directly towards me...

He slowed down as he approached me and soared right over my head... It was pretty awesome.

I moved on to Bybee Lake where I have tried unsuccessfully to find the shrike and the Red-shouldered Hawk way too many times... Through some trees I thought I saw a bird swoop down, but with all the leaves falling I couldn't be sure. I crept around to an opening and scanned the marsh till a bird flew up and into a far tree. It was a hawk and my gut said it wasn't a Red-tailed which was good enough reason for me to trudge through the marsh towards it. Finally it swooped down again and plucked a little lizard out of the grass...

I was psyched to see it was definitely the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk! I repositioned myself in sinking mud to get some (slightly) better photos...

Yay! Not just a new bird, but one that has been driving me crazy! Good times!

Blog-o-versary Party!

2011-11-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

Well, by "party" I mean me sitting on my couch with a warm blanket looking at old photos... My two year blog anniversary is coming up in a couple days and to celebrate I am digging into the archives for some fun stuff like birds I misidentified and birds I never identified... Plus it's pouring and it's a nice excuse to say inside. I would love your help with my many unsolved mystery birds!!

In 2008 I made a weird decision to quit my job and move to Philly. I don't regret it because it helped me get my head on straight and spend some time with my family, but I returned to Portland as soon as I could (in April of '09), by way of an amazing road trip through the southwest with one of my best friends (two if you count Jake). I wasn't into birds yet, but I would take photos of them occasionally.

From Saguaro National Park...

We thought these were roadrunners, because they were running, but I think they're Gambel's Quails:

This bird looks like a Gilded Flicker maybe:

And then there's this guy, that I just figured out is a White-winged Dove:

Damn, too bad I only count birds I've seen since I started really birding!

I called this guy a Savannah Sparrow:

Golden-crowned Sparrow, Jackson Bottoms, November 2009

I never figured out this goose:

Tualatin River NWR, November 2009

In 2009 when I was visiting my family for Christmas I took photos of this bird in my brother's yard in Somerville, Massachusetts:

I still have no idea what it is... Thoughts?

I called this guy a Peregrine:

Red-tailed Hawk, February 2010, Ridgefield NWR

And I called this guy a Golden Eagle:

Bald Eagle, February 2010, Ridgefield NWR

I'm not sure what I called this bird, but I certainly didn't call it a Red-breasted Merganser:

Red-breasted Merganser, March 2010, Whidbey Island

In April of 2010 I went down to California to visit friends and we checked out the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto. I never bothered to identify the shorebirds I saw....

Willet?

Godwits and other stuff?

On the beach near my friend's house in Pacifica:

Whimbrel?

I found this bird on the way to Malheur in June 2010, but never identified it:

Wilson's Phalarope?

From Glacier National Park in July of 2010... I called this guy "some kind of flycatcher" for some reason:

Swainson's Thrush?

At Yellowstone I also called this "some kind of flycatcher":

Townsend's Solitaire

Also at Yellowstone, I called this a Western Tanager:

Pine Grosbeak?

Alright, there are many more birds I have messed up or never figured out at all, but I will leave you with just one more. This hawk was on Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon in September 2010:

Thank you for joining me on this trip down memory lane! Also thank you to everyone has been reading my blog and helping me with ID's. As you can see, I am definitely getting better but still have soooooo much to learn. Good times!

Ridgefield NWR 11-14-11

2011-11-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

I had a pretty mellow trip to Ridgefield yesterday morning... I didn't see a single coyote or bittern or owl, so certain people can stop poking fun at me! In fact, birding was pretty tame and it was a quartet of river otters that stole the show...

They were practicing all their otter activities: being cute, eating fish, cuddling, etc.

It was almost too much.

The biggest bird excitement was watching a harrier take on a couple hawks... She chased one off across a field, then came back to chase yet another (possibly Rough-legged?):

Another highlight was a lone Eurasian Wigeon on Rest Lake:

And lastly, Tundra Swans are always nice to see:

Good times!

Wild goose chase.

2011-11-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

I went on my first legitimate wild goose chase today... I headed to Astoria in search of the recently reported Ross's Goose. I succeeded, which makes it seem like less of a wild goose chase, but I really was chasing a wild goose. Hmm. Anyhoo, here's what I found:

Pretty cool- a new bird for me, but definitely farther away than I had hoped. These geese and thousands of others took flight after I'd been watching them for about fifteen minutes and flew off out of sight.

I didn't do much birding the rest of the day because of the rain but did manage to take the dogs for a long walk on the beach.

Good times!

Force Lake & Kelley Point Park

2011-11-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

As I had decided earlier this week, I returned to Force Lake this morning armed with trash bags.

I spent about an hour filling up two and a half bags with random garbage (Bud cans, male enhancement pill packaging, Halloween candy wrappers, etc.). I also picked up a hose, two empty jugs of Carlo Rossi, and a couple of big bags someone had dumped in the grass. They were heavy, filled with some kind of metal scraps. And some surprises which I didn't see until I finally managed to get one of the bags in the trunk...

Uh, yeah, that's fur hanging out of the bag. Made my car smell real nice. Anyway, there are still lots of great birds on the lake...

Common and Hooded Mergansers

There was another new duck that seems to be some kind of domestic Mallard type duck (though I definitely tried to turn it into an American Black Duck):

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the super rarities I saw along the edge of the golf course lawn...

Alright, bad joke. After Force Lake I planned to take the dogs to Kelley Point Park but decided to drop the trash off at home first due to my car's newfound death stench. Finally we made it to the park...

I never noticed that one of the pine trees along the main pathway is actually a larch, and its needles are currently a beautiful shade of yellow.

At Kelley Point there always seems to be one area that's hosting a major bird party. You just have to find it. Today I was surprised to find a flock of Townsend's Warblers partying away, among the more common kinglets, wrens, nuthatches, woodpeckers and chickadees.

In a hole in a tree near these guys were some little white mushrooms look cute:

And one last bird I was psyched to see at the park was a Hermit Thrush:

When I arrived home I found some chaos at the feeders- a flock of Lesser Goldfinches! Second time in a week that I've seen them, maybe they are here to stay?!

I counted eight in that photo and there were more flying around....

Good times!

Force Lake & Broughton Beach

2011-11-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

I stopped by Force Lake yesterday morning for a bit and was happy to find a nice variety of water birds..

I was not happy to find a nice variety of trash everywhere, especially after the great clean-up the Friends of Force Lake did last month. (Thanks again to Christie for organizing it!) I picked up what I could, but I'll be going back this weekend with a couple garbage bags.

Hooded and Common Mergansers have increased in numbers and are almost outnumbering the Mallards. Newcomers to the lake included Green-winged Teals, Gadwalls, and Northern Shovelers.

I could make some kind of 70's disco shirt with the pattern in the water above. Not that I need a 70's disco shirt. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that when the teal took off with his lady friend, his wing patches were blue, not green:

Common Merganser, Gadwall, Northern Shovelers

Lots of other usuals around, but I was psyched to see a Horned Grebe in the lake for the first time.

And some usuals:

Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorants, Common Mergansers, Mallard

Domestic Mallard

Mallard landing

After Force Lake I stopped by Broughton Beach on my way to run some work errands. The Horned Lark flock was right there waiting for me.

Trying not to flush these guys with two dogs (on leash) was rather challenging..

I found one Western Meadowlark with the flock, but it seemed more wary of me than the others.

Good times!

Rusty Blackbird, etc.

2011-11-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I picked up my car and everything seemed dandy so I headed to Woodland to look for the Rusty Blackbird. Success!

Only got terrible photos since it was rather dark and gloomy out, but still happy to have seen her. Beautiful bird!

On the way home I stopped at Ridgefield and couldn't find the flycatcher, then stopped at Vancouver Lake to walk the dogs... where my check engine light decided to reappear... Ugh!

Tundra Swans, Ridgefield NWR

Vancouver Lake Park

I have been trying to look on the bright side with the car troubles... I brought the dogs with me to the mechanic this morning so the long walk home would be less boring. It was actually beautiful out and walking through Peninsula Park was awesome. Then back at home I found a new yard bird waiting for me!!

A White-throated Sparrow! Of course he was hanging out in front of the dirty windows, not the clean ones, and he took off when I tried to quietly open it... Oh well, I hope he comes back!

Good times!

Yard Birds.

2011-11-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

The one nice thing about being relatively house-bound due to the car problems is that I've had plenty of time to watch my feeders. Even gave them a good scrubbing yesterday. The birds seem appreciative.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Mr. Peanut

My flickers have been entertaining me, digging in new spots around my tree, as well as keeping the starlings off the suet.

This morning I saw a flash of yellow in my tree and was thrilled to find three Lesser Goldfinches. I have only seen one in the yard once before. Too bad I tossed my thistle bag a couple months ago.

Ralph has been more than happy to help keep an eye on everyone.

Jake, not so much...

Now hopefully I will get a phone call soon saying my car is fixed and I can head up to Woodland Bottoms to look for the Rusty Blackbird! Good times!

Edmonds, Washington.

2011-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

I had grand plans for this weekend- I was going to finally make it up to the Skagit Valley to explore Skagit Game Range, Samish Flats, etc, with stops in Edmonds and Anacortes on the way. Unfortunately I only got to bird Edmonds. Upon arrival in the Skagit area my check engine light came on and the weird wobble my car developed last week reached new wobbly heights. Boo. I ended up driving all the way back to Portland.

But Edmonds was great...

The marina hosts tons of crows, pigeons, gulls, and a Belted Kingfisher:

A Bald Eagle kept watch on the rocks bordering the marina...

Sharing the rocks were dozens of Heermann's Gulls...

Mmm, poop-covered rocks. A couple of gulls along the public pier:

I am hoping to take the next gull ID class offered at the Audubon Society but until then, I'm just guessing... Glaucous-winged? Olympic? Here's a more helpful angle:

There were several Red-necked Grebes out on the water including one just below the pier:

Along with Horned Grebe:

Dozens of Surf Scoters were near the pier also...

Now my favorite thing about the Edmonds pier is that alcids are often not far from shore for once... I found this pair of Pigeon Guillemots looking adorable:

A little farther out were several Rhinoceros Auklets feeding with some gulls...

There were many Red-breasted Mergansers around...

And lastly, a bunch of Buffleheads:

Well, at least I managed to see some good birds before the car trouble started... And now I'm off to find some new tires and someone to check the engine. Just how sketchy is Tires 4 Less??? And why is Les Schwab closed on Sundays?? Anyway.... Good times!

Ridgefield NWR 11-02-11

2011-11-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful and freezing cold morning yesterday, and I headed to Ridgefield to hunt for the Vermilion Flycatcher.

Pied-billed Grebes were looking cold and adorable.

Once the fog lifted it was gorgeous...

A Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret shared some fishing space...

A couple of Cinnamon Teals are still around...

I saw at least five American Bitterns on this trip, some were just sunbathing but a couple were casually plucking fishies out of the water...

I don't think I ever realized how colorful the tops of their noggins were... Just another reason why they are, in fact, awesome.

It was around the time that I was looking at this bittern that a car pulled up next to me and the guy inside asked if I had seen the flycatcher. I said no, and he said that it had been pretty much in front of me at one point. If that's not enough to make a person crazy I don't know what is... So around the loop I went a third time...

I finally was able to locate the flycatcher in my binoculars when she started flycatching over the water. I managed about a dozen quick shots with my camera before she disappeared and I had to leave to get to work on time. Wish I could have stayed to get better looks at her, but I will take what I can get...

Although I was psyched to finally see a Vermilion Flycatcher, all I could think was how dumb this young bird must be... She could be flycatching in style down in Arizona, basking in the warm sun, but instead she is up in Washington freezing off her little bottom. Come on! Someone needs to talk some sense into her.

Good times!!

Broughton Beach, etc.

2011-11-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday turned out to be the perfect Halloween day- sunny and chilly and everything I remember Halloween being when I was a kid in New England. Of course, New England got snow this year, but whatever. I decided to take the dogs for a long walk in the morning around Broughton Beach.

The first thing I found were the two Pacific Loons that had been reported previously.

A lone Dunlin was wading near three Black-bellied Plovers...

I flushed flocks of American Pipits on many occasions, but this one fella seemed a little curious and stayed put when I walked by with the dogs:

I did some other good birding this weekend but the combination of little free time and painfully slow internet have prevented me from posting about these outings so far.. Here are some of the goodies from the weekend:

One of two Pileated Woodpeckers at Kelley Point Park, 10-29-11

Fiery Golden-crowned Kinglet, Kelley Point Park 10-29-11

Brant mingling with thousands of Cackling Geese at Ankeny NWR 10-29-11

Cackling and Canada Geese, golf course lawn next to Force Lake 10-30-11

Good times!

Recent birds & Ridgefield today...

2011-10-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't get out too much this week for birding but today's trip to Ridgefield more than made up for it... Before we get to that, here's a few birds from the week:

Common Raven, Timberline Lodge

A few Cacklers, Sauvie Island

A few more Cacklers...

Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco

And now for Ridgefield... I went up there because I knew it was supposed to rain and I usually have good luck there when it rains. First off I walked the little trail to the bird blind and was surprised to find a Great Horned Owl land in a tree not far from me. He took off quickly but I got a couple blurry shots...

The trees were looking cool today...

Herons were out and about eating all sorts of creatures...

A rather unconcerned Peregrine:

All of this stuff was fine and dandy, but my favorite sighting of the day had to be this guy:

A porcupine! This was only the second time I had seen one, and the first time I had seen one alive! I wasn't sure if he was injured or if porcupines just walk funny...

I loved his little feet especially....

Alright, enough of that guy... Good times!!

Ridgefield NWR 10-23-11

2011-10-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome morning up at Ridgefield. One might even call it fantastic. I think it helped that I had extremely low expectations. First off, I thought it was going to rain and it turned out to be a beautiful!

Soon after arriving I came across a trio of coyotes. One seemed more wary of me and took off quickly, while the other two seemed less concerned. I think they were curious about Jake and Ralph, and seemed to catch a whiff of them at one point.

Good stuff. It was a good day for hawks at the refuge, starting with this guy:

I think it's a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk but not positive.. Any thoughts? Next up I stopped to check out a couple funny little Marsh Wrens:

While I was stopped there I saw a hawk fly overhead and land in a tree...

It appears to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, which I've never seen at the refuge. Pretty cool. He took off soon after landing...

I was scanning Rest Lake when I realized a harrier was perched right in front of me...

Meanwhile a Peregrine Falcon was hunting over the lake while a coyote watched...

Things were so good I decided to take a second trip around the refuge. I ended up finding a White-throated Sparrow hanging out with a bunch of Golden-crowneds... Wish I had gotten better photos but he disappeared too quickly...

Looks like a tan morph too- I think that's a first for me! Part of the reason he disappeared so quickly was this vehicle passing by:

Not sure what the deal is, but I'm guessing it was a hunter on his way out? Lastly, I noticed this hawk towards the end of the route:

Looks like a Rough-legged Hawk, yes? Also present was a Bald Eagle to really round out the raptor variety. What a great morning!!!

This week's birds...

2011-10-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

I tried to get out every morning this week to tire the dogs out and hopefully squeeze in some good birds. At Broughton Beach were a couple American Pipits walking along the river with some Killdeer and crows.

I could rant and rant about the out of control off-leash dog that proceeded to chase off all of the nearby birds, but I'll spare you. At Force Lake I was psyched to see the return of both Common and Hooded Mergansers...

Along the Frenchman's Bar Trail were some new additions also- Snow Geese! The first ones I have seen this fall. I was trying to sort of sneak up on the geese, or at least make it look like I wasn't planning on going near them, but they saw us coming...

Oops. I walked away for a bit until the birds settled back down.

You can see a Greater White-fronted Goose in the mix also, along with oodles and oodles of Canada and Cackling Geese.

Yesterday my plan was to hit up Smith & Bybee Lakes, Force Lake, and maybe wander down to Mud Slough. I did none of these things because I stopped at the Columbia Slough Trail and decided to do some exploring. The trees just before the trail were filled with birds including Bushtits, Bewick's Wrens, chickadees, an Orange-crowned Warbler, Brown Creepers, and this finchy bird:

Its markings looked much more distinct than the House Finches I'm used to seeing, but perhaps that's all it is... [Purple Finch, it is!] Along the trail a gull and a Red-tailed Hawk were having a disagreement:

Bad photo. They eventually headed off in different directions. A couple of Spotted Sandpipers came flying up the slough and landed on a log down the embankment.

I came across some exposed mud with a bunch of yellowlegs and dowitchers...

I'm guessing these were mostly juvenile Long-billed Dowitchers, but I don't know for sure.

I should mention that this trail is an odd one. I would call most of the areas surrounding it wastelands, filled with homeless camps and garbage. But it's also kind of pretty...

I met one really nice homeless man riding his bike who immediately asked me if I was looking for birds. When I said yes he suggested I cut through the golf course and check out Force Lake. Then he told me about a trip he took to Alaska where he took hundreds of photos, and about this "old geezer" he saw once run up and touch a sleeping grizzly bear. He said that's what old geezers do for fun in Alaska. He said I should never ever play that game.

I ran into him a second time when I was almost back to my car. He warned me not to go down this one hill where there were tons of homeless camps, and they were mostly druggies and would knock me upside the head to steal my camera. Then he rode off.

Part of the trail runs alongside the back of Portland International Raceway. In addition to races, they also host a holiday festival of lights thing every December. I saw where they store the decorations...

Duh, with the old porta potties. Good times!

North Coast.

2011-10-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

I headed to the coast yesterday morning for the northwest's third day in a row of beautiful fall weather. On this trip I only visited places where I could drag the dogs around and thankfully they are still tired. My first stop was the cove in Seaside to finally see some Surfbirds. There were dozens of them hopping around with some Black Turnstones.

Sometimes big waves would hit and the birds would go flying...

Later in the day I got some lunch and returned to the cove where the birds were a bit closer due to the tide coming in a bit.

Also at the cove was this pretty starfish:

While eating my lunch I watched a gull fly off with a starfish, a couple other gulls in pursuit. He landed down on the beach and proceeded to eat it.

Wouldn't want to have to choke that thing down personally, but the gull seemed psyched. My second stop was the south jetty of the Columbia River in Fort Stevens State Park. I was hoping for Lapland Longspurs but no luck.. There were a gazillion Brown Pelicans flying by when I reached the river.

The dogs were psyched because there were little creature prints everywhere and they had to smell all of them.

Looks like raccoon tracks.. They must have been quite busy the night before. In addition to pelicans overhead were tons of gulls, a Pergerine Falcon and some Surf Scoters:

This next bird confused the heck out of me- I was convinced it was a Northern Harrier that just looked weird, but finally realized it was a Rough-legged Hawk:

The first one I'd seen since spring! Pretty cool. After lunch I drove down to Cannon Beach and walked the dogs around the treatment ponds. Nothing too special going on there so we went on to Ecola State Park and did the hike from the main parking area to the beach. I heard oodles of kinglets, chickadees, and wrens along the trail, but saw very few.

Pacific Wren

The trail climbs uphill quite aways and occasionally breaks out of the trees for awesome views of the ocean.

(Pardon the cell phone picture, I never actually took any of the view with my camera).

That hike was enough to wear all of three of us out so we began heading back to Portland. I stopped at the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area to see if any elk were around. They were!

Pretty awesome... I lost count at about 80. In other news, I finally carved up one of my pumpkins the other night... Ralph ate 5 of the candles I bought for lighting it (out of 8), perhaps due to their apple cinnamon scent, and I am guessing it is only a matter of time before he eats the pumpkin too. Till then, Sir Pumpkin looks mighty fine.

Good times!

Mount Rainier National Park

2011-10-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Some exciting things have been happening here, mainly my laptop finally commit suicide so I made a huge leap and got myself a sweet little macbook. Haven't used an apple since the Apple IIc... This fella is way better. I can do so much more than just turn the cursor from an arrow into a frog, and then make that frog green or pink. Ooh but thinking about that old computer made me want to play Oregon Trail. Ok, moving on.

Yesterday I went up to Mt Rainier. I had only been there once before on a road trip eleven years ago, and we had gone to one of the northern entrances. All I remember for wildlife was a fly landing on my friend's hair and sitting there for a long time. This trip was much much better.

I was not even aware that there was a southwest entrance until I started looking up some info after seeing some amazing fox and ptarmigan photos someone took there last weekend. Unfortunately I saw neither of those creatures, but plenty of other goodies made up for it.

Driving along the viewpoint turnoff I saw a creature up ahead in the road. As I got closer I realized it was a bird, a big bird, a bird I had never seen before...

I'm having trouble deciding which kind of grouse it is- it seems like Sooty are more common at Mt Rainier, but then it looks more like Dusky in my Sibley's. Help? [Sooty Grouse, it is!] I am super stoked whatever it is. He had friends too:

Only the male stayed above ground, the ladies kept a bit more distance downhill. Amazingly the dogs remained calm while these birds let me take a billion photos. They were rewarded with fig cookies, and the regular forced pose in front of a mountain.

Next I planned to do as much of a hike as possible while leaving the dogs in the car. I wanted to try the same trails where the foxes and ptarmigans were seen, so I headed to the Golden Gate Trail that leaves from the Paradise parking area. There was a group of loud boy scouts or something behind me so I pretty much speed-walked up the first part.

Dark-eyed Junco

The trail turned from pavement to mud to snow as it climbed up the side of the mountain...

Pretty sweet views. On my way up I barely saw any birds, and zero mammals. I eventually had to turn around because I couldn't leave the dogs for too long. The descent was quick until I came across marmot-fest!

I was taking pictures of this one marmot that seemed to be slowly creeping towards me. I racked my brain for any information I had on marmots and whether they'd been known to attack or maim or anything like that, all the while the marmot crept closer. Then with a few tail flicks it full on charged towards me. I think I jumped a foot in the air but it was just heading for a tunnel under the trail I was standing near.

I think all of the marmots I saw were hoary marmots. Dang cute.

For birds besides the grouse, it was all mountain regulars: Gray Jays, ravens, juncos, nuthatches, and the first Varied Thrush I had seen since spring.

I could post a hundred photos of this park and it would still not fully illustrate just how beautiful it was... Here's one last attempt:

I can't wait to go back... Good times!!

No more peanuts for you!

2011-10-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

This morning I was at the store getting some bird seed and I thought, hmm, maybe I should pick up some peanuts for the scrub-jays. Had I known the chaos this would cause, I may have decided differently. Nah, I still would have bought the peanuts.

It started off entertaining with the scrub-jays making a ruckus, dashing in and out of the yard with beaks full of peanuts.

Everything seemed to be gum drops and candy canes... Til about an hour later when I peeked outside only to find a full blown scrub-jay fight reminiscent of the great coot fight of earlier this year.

These guys are brutal! It kind of stressed me out that I might finally see a bird peck another bird to death...

The fight broke up when something scared all the birds out of the yard... Phew. Yeah, so now I'm thinking peanuts just make them crazy. Anyone else have this problem?

Ridgefield NWR 10-11-11

2011-10-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

This will probably be the shortest post I've ever done about a trip up to Ridgefield... The birds were out and about but I failed miserably at getting decent photos. The weather went from sunny to rainy (and continued to do so a dozen more times throughout the day) which probably didn't help. Oh well, it was still an alright trip.

White-crowned Sparrow

Red-tailed Hawk

And here's the fella that saved the show:

Good times!

Weekend stuff.

2011-10-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a nice long three-day weekend for me (oh wait, that's every weekend for me), and I managed to get outside quite a bit. Saturday morning was spent at Force Lake not birding, but rather helping to pick up trash and massacre blackberry bushes. I've got the scratches to prove it. Anyway, here are some birds and other things from the weekend...

It's been creeper city at Kelley Point lately, and I'm not even talking about the weirdo dudes that hang out in the parking lot...

Brown Creeper

I had this House Sparrow below my feeder on Saturday... Is it molting or something else?

Oh yeah, I watched a spider out front of my house wrapping up a ladybug:

Back to Kelley Point Park, I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet with its crown blasting full force!

He calmed down pretty quickly, but it was awesome to see for a few seconds...

This afternoon my friend and I went to Sauvie Island to pick pumpkins. We checked out three different patches and Sauvie Island Farms ended up being the easy favorite. This is where my friend found his dream pumpkin and actually yelled out "oh my god, butt pumpkin!" when he saw it:

Kruger's ended up having the most boring pumpkin selection, and at the Pumpkin Patch we didn't even look at pumpkins. We got stuck in the damn corn maze for an embarrassingly long time. Oh well, good times!

Fernhill Wetlands.

2011-10-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty dark and gloomy here in the northwest this week, but for some reason it has made me want to get outside even more. Yesterday afternoon I went over to Fernhill Wetlands for the first time since spring. It seemed completely dead and silent at first but I eventually found the birds...

American Kestrel

Along the Dabbler's Marsh trail I found a funny goldfinch that I am pretty sure wanted to be my friend.

Back in the mitigation pond was a scattering of geese, including these outcasts:

I know the middle bird (or similar birds) have been called Graylag X Canada Goose hybrids, so I wonder if those are the actual parents with him? They seemed to stick together...

Grasshoppa

There's a nice dead tree at the wetlands where I've seen herons and eagles perch.. Yesterday it was a Red-tailed Hawk.

Lastly, this heron was pretty:

Good times!

Frenchman's Bar Trail.

2011-10-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I walked the dogs along the Frenchman's Bar Trail in Vancouver this morning to get a real taste of fall..

Geese and cranes were present in overwhelming numbers, and in underwhelming numbers, a single Peregrine Falcon:

That's my third falcon for the week. Hmm. Other birds along the trail included Turkey Vultures, a male Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, goldfinches, Savannah and Golden-crowned Sparrows, flickers, blackbirds, Greater White-fronted Geese, and gulls. Good times!

Smith & Bybee Lakes/Kelley Point Park

2011-10-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do some local birding this morning so headed to my nearest wildlife area, Smith & Bybee Lakes. I was also hoping to spot the Red-shouldered Hawk seen yesterday. Dipped on the hawk, but finally saw the hundreds of pelicans and egrets hanging out at the lakes.

I left Smith & Bybee and headed to Kelley Point Park so I could walk the dogs for a bit. We started our walk on the beach along the Willamette where I wasn't expecting to see many birds. I was surprised to find lots of birds, especially a tolerant Pileated Woodpecker...

Chickadees and warblers were moving through the area also. The rain made for some fuzzy photos...

Black-throated Gray Warbler

While I was watching the warblers, I saw the woodpecker come flying out of the trees with another bird in hot pursuit. The woodpecker flew straight over the Willamette towards Sauvie Island and the other bird turned around and returned to a nearby tree. It was a robin. Really? A Pileated Woodpecker can be chased away by a robin?? Wuss.

Here's something I've never seen get chased away by a robin:

Yeah snails! Also at Kelley Point I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, my first of the season... Good times!

Crater Lake.

2011-10-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

The dogs and I went down to Crater Lake this weekend. The weather was beautiful but freezing cold at night so we didn't stay as long as planned...

It wasn't super birdy but I managed to find the expected ones...

Clark's Nutcrackers

Mountain Chickadee

Common Raven

Trying to get a photo of the dogs in front of the lake was ridiculously difficult, mainly due to the ground squirrels and Clark's Nutcrackers.

At the Pinnacles were more squirrels as well as Red Crossbills...

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

I did a little exploring outside of the park as well. There were some nice big fields of cows just south of the park where I found this Prairie Falcon:

Today back at home my feeders were hopping. My first juncos have returned, or at least are passing through, and they brought a new yard bird with them: a Golden-crowned Sparrow!

I am stoked for fall! Good times!