Friday, September 28, 2012

Ridgefield - Carty Unit and Drive Loop

9.25.12

Carty Unit:

  • American Kestrel - male
  • Western Scrub-Jay
  • Cedar Waxwings
  • Canada Geese
  • Bushtits
  • Golden-Crowned Sparrows - they sure weren't gone long.  I want to say it's been 4 months since last time I saw one.
  • Mallards
  • Killdeer - lots!
  • Red-Tailed Hawk
  • Steller's Jays
  • Song Sparrows
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Great Egrets - 3
  • American Robin
  • American Crow
  • Golden-Crowned Kinglet
  • Turkey Vultures
  • Northern Flicker - male
  • White-Crowned Sparrows
  • Red-Breasted Nuthatches
  • Black-Capped Chickadee
  • Red-Breasted Sapsuckers
  • Sandhill Crane - saw one, heard many
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Towhee

Drive Loop:
  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Pied-Billed Grebes
  • Wood Ducks
  • Great Horned Owl!
  • Brown Creeper
  • Northern Harrier
  • American Coots
  • Savannah Sparrow
Male Belted Kingfisher
Pied-Billed Grebe

Great Blue Heron



Great Horned Owl

Wood Ducks

Beaverton Nature Park - Woodpeckers!

10.23.12
I haven't been to the nature park in a long time, and it was so nice to revisit it.  I love living so close to it again!


  • Western Scrub-Jays
  • Mallards - the males are finally looking like their old selves again, instead of molting and female esq.
  • Northern Flicker
  • Black-Capped Chickadees
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Pileated Woodpecker - yay! I haven't seen one in months and months. Nov. maybe.  I remember it was really cold.
  • Steller's Jay
  • Red-Breasted Nuthatch
  • Gadwall
  • Oregon Junco
  • Brown Creeper
  • Hutton's Vireo
  • Black-Throated Gray Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker - pretty sure it's a female.  The red on the male goes all the way to the beak and continues on the side, kind of like a mustache.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Summer in closing

This summer has been one heck of a birding adventure.  
Multiple coastal birding trips.
Malheur.
Coos Bay shorebird festival and pelagic tour.
Three sisters.
Country livin'/birds galore. 
Lifers, lifers, lifers!

After reviewing my list of summer birds I wanted to see, I did better than I expected:
  • Bulldock's Oriole
  • Blue-Winged Teal
  • Virginia Rail
  • Pigeon Guillemot
  • Common Nighthawk
  • Olive-Sided Flycatcher
  • Western Wood-Pewee
  • Willow Flycatcher
  • Hutton's Vireo
  • Warbling Viero
  • Bank Swallow
  • Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
  • Purple Martin
  • House Wren
  • Black-Throated Gray Warbler
  • Wilson's Warbler - I had seen only one once last summer and hoped to see them again, and boy did I ever! Lots-o-Wilson's! 
  • Chipping Sparrow - Again, one I had already seen, a while back and wanted to see again.
  • Lazuli Bunting
  • Eared Grebe
  • Black-Crowned Night-Heron
  • Swainson's Hawk
  • Black-Necked Stilt
  • American Avocet
  • Wilson's Phalarope
  • Williamson's Sapsucker
  • Say's Phoebe
  • Western Kingbird
  • Loggerhead Shrike
  • Lark Sparrow
  • Brewer's Sparrow
I even saw some birds left over from my winter's list:
  • Pacific Loon
  • Clark's Grebe
  • White-Faced Ibis
The birds left on my summer list, I have yet to see:
  • Sora
  • Cassin's Vireo
  • Long-Billed Curlew
  • Common Poorwill
  • Black-Chinned Hummingbird
  • Calliope Hummingbird
  • Red-Naped Sapsucker
  • Dusky Flycatcher
  • Gray Flycatcher
Maybe next Summer?  
Next I need to work on a new winter list, can't wait!

In other developments, at the end of August we moved out of the country Manning house and back into an apartment in Beaverton.  It's for the better, despite all the cool birds and wildlife there, but I would like to finish this post with one last look at the end of my summer in Manning.
Pine Siskins

The always present, White-Crowned Sparrow

Pretty purple flowers

Odd bark of a birch tree

Weeds are pretty too

Lots of pretty purple flowers

A juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow

Handsome American Robin

Eating worms

Spotted Towhee
The resident ground hog.  I was glad to see him make new holes all summer, despite the land lord's talk of 'gassing him'. :(

My indoor cat, Thomas, got to walk around the yard with me and pretend to hunt for mice.

The bird bath visited by many of the birds.  The jays liked to drink from it.

Lots of feathers, mostly Steller's Jay feathers.

I will not soon forget the Swifts living in the chimney and this one that was down in the fire place.
MacGillivray's Warbler.  One of 3 lifers I got at the Manning house.  The first was Evening Grosbeaks.

Black-Headed Grosbeak - male

A frequent visitor, the Red-Breasted Sapsucker in his favorite tree.

So cute.

Never a shortage of White-Crowned Sparrows.

This little guy and one other W.C. Sparrow had no tail.  It was strange, but he could still fly.  

Crow flight

A petrified tree frog, found in my living room and became a mascot of sorts.

Moth 1

Moth 2

Willow Flycatcher.  Note no eye ring.  My third Manning lifer.

Yikes, run for it!

Great Summer, but now it's time to bring on the Winter birding! :D

3 Sisters


Indian Ford Camp 9.05.12 - 9.06.12
  • Common Ravens
  • Turkey Vultures
  • Mountain Bluebirds
  • Red-Breasted Nuthatch
  • Brown Creeper
  • Red-Tailed Hawk
  • Mountain Chickadees*
  • Northern Flicker
  • Chipping Sparrows
  • Rock Wren
  • Oregon Junco
  • Green-Tailed Towhee*
*Lifers - right at the campsite!
Mountain Chickadee
Head of Metoilius River and along the river
9.05.12
  • Steller's Jays
  • Clark's Nutcracker*
  • Yellow-Rumped Warbler - juv
  • Williamson's Sapsucker* - female
  • Vaux's Swifts
  • Mallards
  • Song Sparrow
  • Black-Capped Chickadee
  • Pacific-Slope Flycatcher*
  • Belted Kingfisher - female
  • White-Headed Woodpeckers*
  • White-Breasted Nuthatches
  • Pygmy Nuthatches*
Squeeze time!!!  A kid sprinkled hamster food all over the path.  The chipmunks were going nuts!

Steller's Jay - mouth open possibly to cool down.

Steller's Jays everywhere.

Pacific-Slope Flycatcher in a nearby tree.

A Clark's Nutcracker flies in from the other direction.

Clark's Nutcracker joins the chipmunk feast.

Hops around a bit and is off again.

White-Headed Woodpecker - male

White-Headed Woodpecker - female
 Calliope Crossing 9.06.12

  • White-Breasted Nuthatches
  • Common Ravens
  • Mountain Chickadees
  • Orange-Crowned Warblers
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Clark's Nutcrackers
  • Olive-Sided Flycatcher
  • Pacific-Slope Flycatcher
  • Yellow-Rumped Warblers
  • Red-Breasted Nuthatch
  • Brewer's Sparrow*
  • Northern Goshawk*
*Lifers!


This little tree frog entertained me for quite some time.  So cute!

the crossing.

The water there was so clear.

Luckily there was a lot of other wildlife there, because the birds were few and far between.  At least new birds, anyway.