On December 23, 2020, I made another birding excursion south towards Fir Island. On the way I encountered this Red-tailed hawk for at least the second time on one of my recent birding excursions.

I generally find the Red-tailed hawks rather skittish… they generally will fly if you even slow the car near them, much less stop. However this particular hawk seemed quite comfortable with me parked on the road nearby. I took a few photos and then the hawk flew away from me and landed between rows of blueberry bushes, but still relatively near to me. I moved up a bit and it became evident that it had caught something in the grass. As I watched it lifted up what seemed to be like a small rodent…

and then swallowed it whole!

Later in my travels I found this Orange-crowned warbler gleaning insects from under blackberry bush leaves…

In my last post I displayed a photograph of what I believe to be a Purple finch, and on this day I searched the same area to see if I could find it again and get a better photo. I can’t be positive that this is the same bird or even that is a Purple finch˙, but I believe it to be one.

I found this Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco taking a bath beside the road…

In the winter of 2019-20 I found three female Anna’s hummingbirds on or in the vicinity of a holly tree that would probably provide good cover from wind and to some extent, rain. I photographed these hummingbirds several times over a several week period a year ago. This winter I found there were two females in exactly the same area. I believe that they are all probably part of the same family that has stayed in the are for over a year.