Winter is the time of year I spend more time on the road photographing birds afield, using my car as a blind.  (More about that in a minute!)  I didn’t need a blind for this first eagle photo with Mount Baker in the background… and I guess you could say that the eagle was also in the background!

Here’s a juvenile Bald eagle.  In this case, the term ‘juvenile’ (perhaps more properly, ‘sub-adult’) as I use it is to designate any eagle up to four years old at which time they acquire their adult plumage.)

And now for a little lecturing!  You will be able to get much closer to birds if you will STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE TO OBSERVE!  I’ve had two occurrences lately when, when I was obviously observing/photographing from my car, another vehicle drove up and the occupants tried to approach birds on foot.  The birds were driven away, interrupting my photographic opportunities and increasing the distance for their observations.  In one case the driver walked up and asked me the identity of the bird!

This is a rather rare Red-tailed hawk, but for the seasonal Bald eagles, probably the most numerous, wide-spread raptor in the area.  I term this bird a rarity because it has actually found a tree limb on which to perch!

This time of year we have visiting Rough-legged hawks in the area.  Within a week of this excursion, while birding with a friend, we counted FOUR in the Samish Flats area.  I don’t think I’ve seen one anywhere other than on a power pole or power line.

This swan was flying straight at me.

I’m not the only birder afield!

Winding up my excursion, I encountered this Song sparrow.

And this male House finch...

And finally. a little closer to home, an American robin in the middle of a berry tree.  I’ve been trying to catch the robins in the tree for photos, but in just a couple of days they have eaten from the top down about a third of the berries.  Going, going, gone…!

These photos were taken in the yard on January 6, 2019.  This first bird is a Dark-eyed junco, Oregon race.  If you look at the face carefully, you can see that the area around the eye is composed of white feathers, indicating that this bird is leucistic.  There are also faint traces of white feathers in a few isolated areas around the bird’s head.

This junco, seen on the same day, appears to have a problem with feathers around the eye.  If you again look closely, you can see that the area around the eye is denuded, but you can see a few white feathers near the bottom front of the eye.

There didn’t seem to be any differences in behavior between these juncos and others in the yard, and the juncos didn’t seem to exhibit any vision problems.  So is this a case of leucitism or possibly some disease passed among juncos?

And, while I’m on the subject of juncos, here’s another photo of our single Slate-colored junco.

A male House finch.  I observed three males in the yard this (1/8/2019) afternoon.

Our only adult White-crowned sparrow.

A magnificent male Spotted towhee who has a partner/mate that also frequents the yard.

One of the six American goldfinches that were in our yard this past weekend.  These have been relative rare birds in our yard during past winters.

And finally, a couple of more photos of what is probably the same Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race), one of several that we’ve had in the yard for the past month or so, including for the Christmas Bird Count.

I returned from my morning obligations on January 3 to find that the yard was populated by an unusual number of birds.  I made the decision to skip my usual nap and do a little yard birding.  I found that most, but not all, of our winter visitors were well represented, even if available light for photography wasn’t.

First up, a couple of rather rare winter visitors, at least two Yellow-rumped warblers (Audubon’s race) that have been in the yard from time to time for at least the last month.  Sadly, early in December one of the warblers (not one of the ones pictured here) got into it with another bird and both were killed in a simultaneous window strike.  (I’m not sure whether or not these two photos are of the same bird but there were at least two in the yard at the same time.)

Here’s a photo of one of our many Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race), easily the most numerous species in the yard.

And here are a couple of photos of our Dark-eyed junco (Slate-colored race), a species that inexplicably has graced our yard for the last 11-12 winters.

This Chestnut-backed chickadee stopped by for a bath in the watercourse.

While I was photographing, this Brown creeper suddenly showed up beside the watercourse but flew before accessing the water.  This was the only species that was unexpectedly absent from our feeder watch that was part of the Christmas Bird Count!

We have at least two Spotted towhees in the yard.

We usually have one Fox sparrow each winter and this is it!

And a Song sparrow…

We have about 4-5 Golden-crowned sparrows that frequent the yard each winter.  This one is probably a male owing to the still relatively bright crown.

Rounding out the list is this probably-juvenile White-crowned sparrow with the tan crown.  We briefly had an adult in the yard but I wasn’t able to get a good photo of it.

There were several other species that visited but for which i didn’t obtain photos.