Birds, Birds, Everywhere...: Downy Woodpecker

Showing posts with label Downy Woodpecker. Show all posts

Monday, December 10, 2012

Whitaker Ponds

11.27.12 (Cont.)

As is almost tradition with my cousin and I, when we go to one spot, we must go to another, ESPECIALLY if there were lifers at the first spot. It's almost hard to stop birding after one starts.

Right off we see this male Downy Woodpecker.

Additionally we saw:

Oregon Juncos
Black-Capped Chickadees
Bushtits
Ruby-Crowned Kinglets
Mallards
Gadwalls
Hooded Mergansers 8+ pairs!
Buffleheads - females only
Canada Geese
Ring-Necked Duck
Northern Flicker
Western Scrub-Jay
Spotted Towhee

I think I was getting tired, because I completely missed out on Golden-Crowned Sparrows and a Brown Creeper! Plus, I hardly took any pictures.

Tunnel through the woods.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

I've been wanting to do a post all about backyard birds and I figured no better time then now, since we're moving soon and will have all new birds visiting in an all new location.

Like I've mentioned before, I have always had some interest in birds.
This is the earliest photographic evidence of that... (haha)

It's so funny, the random things that come up when you go through old photos.

Hahaha! I almost forgot about this...
In Dec. of 2006, this male Ringed-Necked Pheasant* literally appeared in our backyard one day out of no where.

April 2008 - this Orange-Crowned Warbler* caught my attention.

In June 2010, a male Downy Woodpecker* would come by for a daily visit to a bird bell I put out on my patio.

I set up my bird feeder around the time I first started really getting into birding.
(Around March 2011) Since I set up my feeder at the beginning of my birding "career", many of the birds I saw were lifers. Seeing and successfully identifying birds on my feeder helped fuel the growing birder within.

March 2011

House Finch

April 2011

House Finches*
Black-Capped Chickadees*
Song Sparrow
Yellow-Rumped Warbler* - male

May 2011

Cooper's Hawk - scoped it from the living room! heehee
House Sparrow - male
Red-Winged Blackbird - male
White-Crowned Sparrow
Red-Winged Blackbird - female
Anna's Hummingbird* - male
Black-Headed Grosbeak*
Purple Finches - after so many house finches, I started to develop a keen eye.

Red-Winged Blackbird and House Sparrow - weird combo

Young male Red-Winged Blackbird

Black-Headed Grosbeak

June 2011

Mourning Doves*
Great Blue Heron - flying majestically above
Northern Harrier - perched on the play structure at my apartments!
Norther Flicker

*Lifers!

July 2011

Song Sparrow - after being gone for 2+ months. and even now I rarely see song sparrows at my feeder.
American Goldfinch

September 2011

Oregon Juncos - for some reason it took them forever to show up at my feeder, but they basically haven't left since.
Western Scrub-Jay
Downy Woodpecker - back for the first time in over a year! only briefly this time :

This Anna's Hummingbird comes by on a daily basis and sits on that branch, chattin' up a storm.

A young House Sparrow sits in a basket of seeds. I love this one because he almost looks like a tiny hawk staring down at his prey.

The now full grown House Sparrow emerges from the basket of seed.

October 2011

Lesser Goldfinch
Steller's Jay

Lesser Goldfinches

An Oregon Junco takes a try at the branch

November 2011

Spotted Towhee

Thomas loves Black-Capped Chickadees

December 2011

European Starling - surprisingly they've only visited 1 or 2 times

January 2012

Anna's Humming bird

Febuary 2012

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Yellow-Rumped Warbler, a rare visitor to my feeders

March 2012

American Goldfinches - first of the season!
Great Egret - flying above
Song Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinches

Guinea Hen - this was at an apartment we looked at - a potential backyard bird if we moved in. We also saw a Peacock! Apparently there's a stable near by where a bunch of these birds live. How weird is that?

House Sparrow

House Sparrow - male and House Finch - female

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Commonwealth / Furnhill / Jackson Bottom

A birding marathon extravaganza, if you will, a birding trip many months in the making, sprinting to and fro location after location and collecting lots of birds (and memories!) along the way. :D

We started at East Commonwealth Lake Park Trail, South Beaverton in the Long Name Division neighborhood. Hahaha!!! JK, but why such a loooong name? We didn't walk the circle, but we still got the gist.

House Finch - male
Red-Tailed Hawk
American Wigeons
Mallards
Song Sparrows
Bufflehead - male
House Sparrow - male
Anna's Hummingbird - call
American Coot
Western Scrub-Jay
Black-Capped Chickadee - call (too bad I only know a few easy calls... need to work on that)
American Robins
Western Gulls

Next was Furnhill Wetlands, which was supposed to be the bell of the ball, but instead it was flooded into an unrecognizable blob. I just hope the water goes down soon and Elvira can come back and see what it's really like. As for her out of town, visiting folks... well hopefully she can send them pictures of what it was supposed to look like. ;) What was really cool though, Sue knew all the back roads and we were able to do a convoy tour of the other side of the wetlands.

Brewer's Blackbirds
American Coots
Mourning Doves
American Robins
Northern Flickers
Song Sparrows
Red-Tailed Hawks
Downy Woodpecker - male
European Starlings
Canada Geese
Red-Winged Blackbird - call - I seemed to miss it when others finally spotted it. I may have been talking to a random lady who I thought was part of our group. Ha!
Anna's Hummingbird
Tree Swallows
Western Meadowlarks - at one point of of them landed on a power line, it looked so big and strange up there.
American Kestrel
Bushtits - always so much prettier than I expect. The photo in my Smithsonian book has to be the drabbest Bushtit ever and it's imprinted on my brain.
Brown-Headed Cowbird - boo ya! Just me and my cousin got that one.

As you can see, the water level was WELL past the half way point in the road.

Last stop, Jackson Bottom

Killdeers - in the parking lot, of course!
Lesser Goldfinch - first of the season
Anna's Hummingbird
Black-Capped Chickadees
Chestnut-Backed Chickadees
Pine Siskins
Oregon Juncos
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker - male
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Canada Geese
American Coots
Tree Swallows
Red-Winged Blackbird
American Robins
Western Scrub-Jay - it's funny how there will be times where you wont see a single robin or scrub-jay the whole day...

Downy Boy

Somehow it's even more flooded than before!

Does this look familiar?

We wrapped up the day with dinner at Chennai Masala - the best Indian restaurant ever!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Whitaker Ponds

Part two of yesterday, after a call from my cousin to join him and Elvira to try to get the Black Phoebe. Of course I can't refuse such an offer and I was off to join my fellow birders on the exciting chase of a new bird. (We didn't see it, but it was still a great trip!)

American Robins
Downy Woodpeckers
Cedar Waxwings
Canada Geese
Yellow-Rumped Warblers - in full breeding plumage!
Mallards
Green-Winged Teal - male
Northern Flicker
American Crows
Oregon Juncos
Black-Capped Chickadees
Red-Winged Blackbird
Bushtits
Anna's Hummingbird - call
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
GREAT HORNED OWLS - and owlets! (so ridiculous looking - love them!)
Spotted Towhee

Great Horned Owl... so very great

By this time no doubt getting annoyed by me

A sequence of events - I watched a pellet fall to the ground...

Owlets - this picture sooo doesn't give it justice... but you get the idea...

Monday, March 5, 2012

Astoria

A lovely day at Astoria yesterday.

Red-Tailed Hawks
American Robins
American Crows
Great Egrets
Red-Winged Blackbirds
American Wigeons
European Starlings
Steller's Jays
Mourning Dove
Brewer's Blackbird
American Coots
Western Scrub-Jay
Gadwalls

We expected South Jetty to be a pretty big attraction, as it usually is, but let me tell you... I don't think anyone could ever see less in such a prime location. I don't know where the birds were yesterday morning, but they weren't at the jetty.

American Crows
Western Gulls - and I'm not even talking, "oh it was just a bunch of gulls"... it was more like, "oh my goodness, there's a gull!!!"
Song Sparrows
Great Blue Heron

South Jetty
cloudy and foggy with a slice of sunshine

Not only were the pickings slim, we really worked to get to the beach. The tide was high, with a stream blocking the beach, so we walked into the field, through tall grass and soggy ground to jump over the stream once it was narrow enough. Then we struggled our way through taller grass, sand, logs and bushes, over the sand dune to see.... absolutely nothing on the beach, in the water or in the sky. Oh wait, there were more crows in the far distance! It was kind of weird.

Next we tried the main beach access and the wooded trails near by.

Sanderlings*
Bald Eagles
Pacific Wren* - a division of Winter Wren
Black-Capped Chickadee
Chestnut-Backed Chickadees
American Robins
Varied Thrushes
Northern Flickers
Downy Woodpecker
Common Ravens

*Lifers!

The Sanderlings suddenly took off out of sight

the culprit
(take a look at those beefy legs!)

then he just leaves

a juvenile Bald Eagle follows

Northern Flicker (25% black and white photo)

deer scratchings

At one point the walking trail goes through a tunnel, beneath a road, and right next to that was a dead Western Grebe. We were speculating how it died. I noticed there was a trail of feathers leading from the road, down the embankment to where it lied and I thought it could have flown in front of a car and bounced off the windshield (something my cousin and I unfortunately witnessed with a crow and a car ahead of us one trip). My cousin pointed out that grebes can't walk and would have no reason to be near woods (especially flying low to the ground), making it all the more mysterious.

Next we stopped at a sewage plant of sorts, which surprisingly, was recommended in a birding pamphlet. It also borders the Columbia River.

Greater Scaup* - we stood there with our books forever, realizing Lesser Scaup and Greater Scaup are soooo similar that it's ridiculous.
Double-Crested Cormorant
Common Loon
Buffleheads
Western Grebes
Anna's Hummingbird
Ruddy Ducks

Greater Scaup

You never know what you're going to come across. A part of me REALLY wanted to take a peak, but I think there may have been someone inside.

And there was waterfowl in there...
:(

Lastly we checked out the Eagle Sanctuary off Highway 30 that several people have recommended to me. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was almost dark, so there wasn't a whole lot out there, but I have a feeling this place has a lot of potential early in the day.