Smith and Bybee Lakes Wildlife Area

This was my first official birding trip.  It included binoculars, a scope and the ever important coffee debriefing, where we review all the birds we see, write them in our birding journal and check off any new species.  Of course at this point I didn't have a birding journal, but my cousin did give me a checklist of local birds.  I missed a lot of what was seen by others while I tired to figure out the binoculars I had borrowed.  During the debrief, I could picture only  two of the species we saw, the others just seemed to be small random birds, A.K.A "Little Brown Jobbers".  Regardless, I was interested in another trip at some point.  

• Juvenile Bald Eagle*
• Bushtits* (I remember thinking, "BUSH-whats?!?!")
• Red-Tailed Hawk
• Brown Creeper*
• Song Sparrow*
• Bufflehead*

*Lifer

Digiscope picture of the Juvenile Bald Eagle

Tualatin Hills Nature Park

This was almost like a "dry run" of my first birding trip.  It was basically a walk through the park, with my cousin pointing out a couple birds.


Here's what we saw:

• Pileated Woodpecker *
• Red-Tailed Hawk *

*Lifer

New Zealand

My birding obsession started before I realized it, taking pictures of the common birds on a trip to New Zealand.  About a year later, I was fully submersed in the world of birds and remembered I had taken a few pictures of birds in NZ.  I was very surprised to find 45 shots of 13 species of birds.  I eagerly searched the internet to identify the birds.

Surprisingly, New Zealand only has a few speicies of gulls so it was easy enough to identify them.  Here we have the Red-Billed Gull.

Female Blackbird

This Cormorant was difficult to identify.  It seems they are sometimes called "Shags" or "Kawau".  I think this one is a Little-Pied Cormorant, possibly also called "Little Shag" (Kawaupaka).

Having just come across several unidentifiable, domesticated water fowl at the time I started looking through these pictures, I figured I had no chance at identifying these ones.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  I found a picture of these guys that could almost have been my exact photo.  Male and female (white head) Paradise Shelduck. 

Southern Black-Backed Gull

 Pukeko

Australian Magpies

Either a female Grey Duck or Mallard or maybe even a hybrid? 

California Quail

Fantail

Song Thrush

A Grebe of sorts.  Reminds me of a Pie-Billed Grebe, but could never quite figure this one out.  I also saw a little yellow bird, but the only picture I could get of it was a blurry yellow blob.  Maybe a Waxeye?  We shall never know for sure.