Chapman School Swifts

What a crazy sight that was to see!  I didn't realize how long the whole process is to get into the chimney every night.  First a few come to check out the surroundings.  They do this off and on for a bit.  Then they finally start gathering up and every few minutes you think ok, so this is about it then, and before you know it thousands of swifts are circling the chimney.  And even then they don't go right in.  They gather in a tightly packed circle like a giant tornado, and just like a tornado, they eventually spin themselves into a tiny funnel that leads into the chimney.  They swirl around and around until it's dark and everyone made it in safely.  Some even come back out and in again, probably trying to find a good spot among all of the other birds.

• Vaux's Swifts
• Cooper's Hawk

At the beginning this Cooper's Hawk came by looking for a snack.

Tornado of Swifts

Scappoose Bay Marina

• Steller's Jay
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Western Gulls
• Mallard - male
• Great Blue Heron
• Brewer's Blackbirds
• American Crow
• Turkey Vulture 

heehee!

Sauvie's Island

• White-Breasted Nuthatch*
• Barn Swallows
• Tree Swallows
• Ospreys
• European Starlings
• Western Scrub-Jay
• American Goldfinch
• Anna's Hummingbirds
• Oregon Junco
• House Finch

*Lifer

Audubon Society

• Steller's Jay
• Black-Capped Chickadees
• Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
• Red-Breasted Nuthatch
• Bushtits
• Oregon Juncos

Tualatin Hills Nature Park

This trip was more to test out my father-in-law's fancy digital SLR with the telephoto lens attached, but then again, I don't really leave the house and NOT bird, especially while in nature.  :)

• American Robins
• Anna's Hummingbird
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Steller's Jay
• Red-Tailed Hawk

American Robin

"Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description."     ~W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Red-Tailed Hawk

Rough-Skinned Newt

Garter Snake