The Best of 2018

Here are some of my better shots during the year:

Acorn Woodpecker

Cooper's Hawk

Male American "Storm" Wigeon

Lapland Longspur

Common Redpoll

American Water Pipit

American Dipper

Barred Owl

Merlin

Great Blue Heron

Green-winged Teal - Male

Green-winged Teal - Female

American Wigeon - Male

Bufflehead - Male

Hooded Merganser - Female

Cinnamon Teal - Male

Stellar's Jay

Lincoln's Sparrow

Red-tailed Hawk pair - male is the leucitic one on the right

Brown Creeper

Male Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  "I have something in my eye!"

Harlequin Duck

White-breasted Nuthatch

Golden-crowned Sparrow bathing

Golden-crowned Sparrow bathing

Rough-legged Hawk

Female Hooded Merganser

Our resident Red-shouldered Hawk, here now for about 53 months!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Red-winged Blackbird

Virginia Rail

Lapland Longspur

Grey Squirrel

Eared Grebe

Lesser Goldfinch

Rufous Hummingbird

Spring Longspurs

Hi All,

Two days ago Nancy Stotz reported 3 Lapland Longspurs along Livermore Rd, Polk County.   I usually don’t chase such as, in my experience here in the Willamette Valley, these are hardly ever refindable.  However, as I was looking for the Northern Shrike which Roy Gerig refound along the Willamette River, who should call but Roy himself saying he found 5 and possibly 7 Longspurs along Livermore Rd.

Jim Kopitzke and Steve Jaggers had just found the shrike and Steve decided to accompany me to refind it.  We exchanged notes on the Sabine’s Gull and Longspur locations, and ended up meeting again at the north end of Livermore where we thought it best to only use one car, so I parked mine and we headed to the area, a mudflat on the east side of the road about 1.2 miles farther along.  As we neared the area, creeping along, I spied one on the left side of the road and told Steve to stop.  The bird was about 45 feet or so from our car.  Soon we realized there were birds even closer, and we watched them and took pics at our leisure for about 20 minutes.  We were not able to see more than 5 birds at that time. 

Finally a car was heard coming up in back of us, so Steve went to turn the engine on, only to find out he had left the lights on and the battery was dead.  So we got out to let her know our plight, and the birds did not flush.  We were parked more in the oncoming lane, and for whatever reason, she thought she had to squeeze by on the left side, and ended up flushing them, which was when we could tell there were more than just those 5 birds, and I figured about a dozen.  The rest of the flock were in the short green grass.  The birds flew around us in quite wide circles and the next pass I counted 13.  After maybe a couple more minutes they made another pass and I counted 15.  By then I got to thinking maybe they did not land because we were too close to their spot, so I suggested to Steve we back up.  By then Steve had the battery charged with some fast charging device, and so we backed up about 50 feet, but after about 5 minutes the birds did not return, so we left.

As we were able to take pics at our leisure, I ended up taking 242 of them!  Oh well, we get carried away now that we don’t have to buy film.  Below are 9 of the best.  The one bird which was closest most of the time was not quite in full breeding plumage.  And of the 5 birds we saw, none were fully in breeding plumage.  One seemed to be more so, and one was probably closer to basic plumage.

When I have found longspurs in the valley in the past, they are almost always solo birds, or sometimes 2-3 birds, so a flock of 15 seems fairly far out of the ordinary.  Plus, I have only ever seen one in breeding plumage once, back on 6/26/96 at Baskett Slough NWR.  Oddly enough, that one was found by Roy the day before. 

This one seems to have molted such that the black face is more distinct.

Feeder Birds on a Snowy Day

3/23/18

Hi All,

We awoke to 6 inches of snow this morning.  As I had taken my snow tires off a couple weeks ago, we were not going anywhere today.  And as it is Friday, our normal day to go galavanting off since it is Rosie’s one day of the week off, our plans have changed.  Funny though that just over in Monmouth, only 10 miles away, they had rain.  So as we are stuck at home, I thought I’d relieve the boredom by snapping pics of some of our feeder birds and beguile the hours with a new blog.

During the winter we have about 15 species every day, and another 10 which make the occasional visit.  Dark-eyed Juncos are the most common and we usually have about 25 first thing in the morning, waiting for me to fill up the feeder.  This morning I had to shovel a space for them to eat.  Also, all the photos were through the window, so are not as clear as I would normally like.

I went out onto our front porch to take a shot of the snow and as soon as my shutter began the burst, this Anna’s Hummingbird hovered right in front of me and so he was captured in the frames.  Once in a while you get lucky with such.  He is hard to see, but is in line with the cedar tree on the right. 

Lining the power line were Mourning Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove and a Red-winged Blackbird

Here is a Pine Siskin.  We have up to a dozen this winter.  In some winters there can be a few dozen

There is no red on his wing.  With an all black plumage and yellow eyes, this is a Brewer's Blackbird.  There are only 3 this winter, and the other 2 are females.

 Red-winged Blackbirds.  Male on the feeder, female on the suet.  We have had about a dozen all winter.

This Dark-eyed Junco may have had a collision with something

The bird with the light brown sides is a Spotted Towhee.  There have been up to 6 at our feeder this winter.  The other birds are Mourning Doves and Dark-eyed Juncos

Notice how the Mourning Dove on the Right has puffed out his feathers?  This is how they can keep warm in the winter.  We call it "Dead Air Space."  We have had about a dozen all winter.

This is a Eurasian Collared Dove, a relatively newcomer to the west.  We have had up to 10 this winter.

Another shot of a male Red-winged Blackbird.

This male House Finch and his mate have been here all winter, the only ones to represent that species

The Scrub Jay is KING of the feeder, but only when the Acorn Woodpeckers are not around

Acorn Woodpecker.  We have 3 regulars and 3 who are usually absentees.

This is the only Song Sparrow who patronized our feeder this winter.  It has been just wonderful to hear them singing on a sunny days of late.

Black-capped Chickadees are my all time favorite birds.  We have 4 of them every day.

A Band-tailed Pigeon.  This was actually the first to visit our feeder this year.  They leave the state for a warmer climate each fall (Hmmm, I should follow their lead), and I had been wondering when they would show up.  They are the largest North American pigeon, measuring about 14 inches.



When my daughter Esther realized we were snowed in, she sent me this cartoon.

Below is a pair of Norther Flickers, who showed up later in the morning.  We have 4-5 birds each winter.  The top bird is a female whose moustache is light brown, where as the male below her has a red moustache.

This White-crowned Sparrow has only been here for a couple weeks.  I wonder if his feet get cold in that icy water?

If you are going to feed the birds, you will undoubtedly have some you don't really want, like this House Sparrow.  Luckily he is the only one so far this winter.  They were brought over from England to New York about a century ago and now they inhabit all of North and South America. :(

Sapsucker Comparison

Here is a comparison of sapsuckers.  The first is the Yellow-bellied which has been in Common Wealth Park since late last year.  The 2nd one - I took this pic this morning at my place in Falls City, but I think it is the same one that showed up here last October.  They look quite similar.  I had to take the latter through my kitchen glass window at about 150 feet, so a little fuzzy.  The 3rd image is probably the same bird at #2 but in a black & white image which I took a few days ago when my camera setting was at monochrome. You can see that the last two are in the same place on the same tree.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Common Wealth Park, Beaverton, Or

Probably Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Falls City, Or

Another Sapsucker?

3/5/18
While sipping coffee at my kitchen table this morning, reading and glancing up to see what birds were coming to my feeder, this sapsucker visited the poplar tree just uphill, where last fall a few other sapsuckers patronized at times.  At first I thought this was the Yellow-bellied who came back for a visit, but this one shows no red on him.   Looks to be a hybrid.  What do you think?

Albino Red-tailed Hawk

3/4/18
As I needed to get out today, I ended up driving around locally.  Near  Maplegrove, the center of historical abundance for White-tailed Kites in Polk County, I saw what at first was assumed to be one of these kites with lots of white plumage.  But after a few seconds it just did not look quite right, and my next assumption was that it was a bright immature Rough-legged Hawk.  By then I had pulled off the road, and through the binocs I could see it was a mostly albino Red-tailed Hawk.   This was not a big surprise as I have seen one in this general area annually for the last 2 years.

As I was readying the camera, he took off.  I could see the “zebra” like dark/white effect on his wings since the dark flight feathers were interspersed in the more white ones.  He flew toward another hawk some 150 yards away, and when he got there, he must have figured it was his time to procreate and landed on top of her and did his thing, so that is how I knew it was a “he.”  Then he perched next to his mate and I took a few long range pics, like about 250 yards out. One can probably also assume from the last 2 pics the albino was a male as compared to the one he perched next to, as the size difference does seem apparent since we know that female raptors are larger than males.  Maybe next time I will get better pics and maybe have better equipment to do that with.