On November 18, 2023, I spent a brief, but productive time in the yard. I took fewer than 50 photos but obtained what I consider some good ones.

I first photographed this Golden-crowned sparrow on the ground. We seem to have at least three in the yard almost constantly, but there could be twice that many including those in outlying areas.

Another visitor was this lame, male Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco that has been here with a LOT of other juncos. For our winter months these juncos are probably the most numerous species we have in the yard. I can identify this particular bird due to the fact that it only uses its left leg. I occasionally toss peanut kernels to birds and I always try to see that this bird gets gets its share.

We have a couple of Song sparrows around the yard and this is one of them.

This is one of the Chestnut-backed chickadees that frequents the yard. We have both species of chickadees due to our mix of both conifers (mostly firs) and deciduous trees. The chickadees are quite active and very numerous.

Other fairly frequent visitors to the yard are Golden-crowned kinglets. I’ve seen as many as four at one time but have no way of knowing how many of these visitors we have. The kinglets only visit the yard for bathing… if they are seed eaters it’s not from any seed that I provide. I’ve occasionally seen kinglets in dried Ocean Spray seed clusters but I suspect that they are searching for hidden insects rather than eating the tiny seeds. Due to a lack of any red showing in its crown, I presume this is a female.

On November 3, 2023, I want on a birding/photographic excursion to Fir Island and environs. I wasn’t hopeful for a good outing as I had toured the Samish Flats earlier in the week (11/1/2023) with only the following photos of a Red-tailed hawk to show for my efforts.

I was on Downey Road on my way to Fir Island when a bird flew in front of me and dived into the grass adjacent to a farm field beside the road. I backed up and scanned the roadside carefully and spotted this bird frozen by a tuft of grass…

This alone made my entire trip worthwhile… a Wilson’s snipe, formerly a Common snipe and apparently slated to be renamed yet again next year. (I may have lived too long when a bird species acquires three names in my lifetime!) While I do have a few other photos of this species, snipes are not easy to come by!

I was not yet to Fir Island when I encountered this pair of Bald eagles surveying a group of swans in a farm field…

Once on Fir Island I encountered this pre-adult Bald eagle which I watched dine on a dead waterfowl…

At the Hayton F&W Access I encountered five Bald eagles, two of which were these pre-adults in the top of a tree…

I returned to the Bald eagle which had been dining on the waterfowl in the farm field to find that it had moved to the top of a power pole and I took this parting photograph…