Buxton Trail Head - Banks/Vernonia State Trail

• Bufflehead - male
• Wood Duck - male
• American Crows
• Violet-Green Swallows
• American Robins
• Bewick's Wren
• Canada Geese
• Audubon's Warblers
• Brown Creeper
• Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
• Spotted Towhee
• Rufus Hummingbird - by sound
• Orange-Crowned Warbler
• American Goldfinches
• Brewer's Blackbird - female

Red Legged Frogs

Cute little Douglas Squirrel...

Manning Trail Head / confusing warblers

4.22.12

• Violet-Green Swallows
• Song Sparrows
• Rufous Hummingbirds
• Audubon’s Warblers
• Yellow Warblers - female
• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Mourning Doves
• Common Yellowthroat
• American Robins
• American Crows
• Red-Tailed Hawk

Rufous Hummingbird

freshly made woodpecker hole

The lovely smell of blossoms filled the air on this hot Sunday.

4.23.12

• American Robins
• American Crows
• Golden-Crowned Sparrows
• Spotted Towhee
• Rufus Hummingbirds
• Bewick’s Wren
• female Yellow Warblers or Orange-Crowned Warblers?
• Black-Capped Chickadee
• European Starling

Rufous Hummingbird

I'm having quite a bit of trouble with this.  Yellow Warbler or Orange-Crowned Warbler?  

Yellow-Rumped Warbler AKA Audubon's Warbler

More birds at my new house

The list of birds continues to grow and astound!  Heehee...

It's funny because we see the less common versions of common birds here.... for example;

Instead of seeing Black-Capped Chickadees all the time, it's Chestnut-Backed Chickadees.  We see White and Golden-Crowned Sparrows instead of House or Song Sparrows, Purple instead of House Finches.  You're more likely to see a Steller's Jay than a Western Scrub-Jays, and Varied Thrush and Spotted Towhee as often as Robins, and so on.  It's pretty cool! :)

• Turkey Vulture
• California Quail - right in the front yard, through the window!  
• Purple Finches - females
• Pine Siskins
• Red-Winged Blackbirds - at first just the female, but finally, this morning one male.
• American Goldfinch
• Golden-Crowned Sparrows
• Common Ravens
• Hairy Woodpecker

Steller's Jays

American Goldfinch and Pine Siskin

Backyard Birds - at new house!

We couldn't believe all the birds we saw just on the first morning of living at out new place, many from within the house, others in the yard.

• Violet-Green Swallows
• Spotted Towhee
• European Starlings - boo! And they seem to have a nest under the eave of our bedroom.
• Red-Tailed Hawk - in nearby trees and later flying right by the house!
• Oregon Juncos
• Mourning Doves
• Northern Flicker
• American Robins
• Black-Capped Chickadees
• White Crowned Sparrows

Then the next day:

• Chestnut-backed Chickadees
• Varied Thrush
• Steller's Jays
• Western Scrub-Jays
• Red-Breasted Sapsuckers - we were about the leave when I heard tapping and saw a puff of sawdust come from a nearby tree, went over, saw 3!  One was really low and close to us!
• Rufous Hummingbird - later my mom and I were sitting on the patio when a hummingbird almost flew right into us!  We screamed and as is turned back, I saw the rusty red.  First Rufous of the season, and one of the most unusual hummingbird encounters ever.

White-Crowned Sparrow

Varied Thrush

So close!

Fern Ridge / Meadowlark Prairie / Finley Refuge

An awesome trip through and through, although the weather couldn't have been more bi-polar.  I always imagine Spring birding to be this very wonderful, picture-esq event.  In reality, Winter birding is much more tolerable.  We experienced frigid temperatures, down pours, sunshine, hail, strange dark/bright skies; all at once at times.  We even saw a fair share of "sucker holes", this is what my cousin calls it when the sky looks stormy and there is one chunk of clear, sunny skies, trying to trick you into thinking nice weather is coming.  Not the case at all.  Despite the weather, the birding was quite excellent. 


Furn Ridge

• Turkey Vultures - my first of the season!
• American Kestrels
• Acorn Woodpecker*
• Northern Flickers
• Red-Winged Blackbird
• Canada Geese
• Tree Swallows
• Violet-Green Swallows
• Yellow-Rumped Warbler
• Song Sparrows
• Mallards
• American Coots
• Marsh Wren
• Ringed-Necked Ducks
• Golden-Crowned Sparrow
• American White Pelicans*
• Canvasback - male
• Pied-Billed Grebe
• Bufflehead - male
• Great Blue Heron
• Cackling Geese
• Savannah Sparrow 

*Lifers!

American White Pelicans

Crazy skies

Meadowlark Prairie 

• Green-Winged Teals
• Cinnamon Teal
• Northern Shovelers
• Northern Pintails
• Western Bluebirds
• Northern Harriers
• Great Blue Heron

Finley Refuge

• American Robins
• Northern Flickers
• Tree Swallows
• Violet-Green Swallows
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Harriers - male and females
• Yellow-Rumped Warbler - male
• Western Meadowlarks
• Common Yellowthroat - male
• Spotted Towhee
• Golden-Crowned Sparrows
• Green-Winged Teals
• Mallards
• Red-Winged Blackbird - male
• Ring-Necked Ducks
• Osprey - my first of the season!
• Cinnamon Teals
• Song Sparrow
• Black-Capped Chickadee
• Turkey Vultures
• Belted Kingfisher
• Bewick's Wren
• Greater Yellowlegs
• American Wigeons
• European Starlings
• Sanderlings
• Savannah Sparrows
• Red-Tailed Hawks

Western Meadowlark - male

Common Yellowthroat - male

Osprey

One last drench followed by large hail as we head back to the car.

Bird Cams

I feel like I haven't birded in so long, so I'm virtual birding a bit today! :)
A good place for that is The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website.
There are two Great Blue Heron cams in one nest, and a Red-Tailed Hawk cam.  So cool!

It's pretty interesting to watch, every so often they switch spots, turn the eggs, and carefully add sticks in just the right spots.  And the cam has sound, so if you leave it on in the background and hear something different, you can switch back to it to see what's new.

Oh my gosh, at some point during the day, she laid another egg!