On January 22, 2025, I spent a relatively short period of time in the yard. It was 40-degrees with a clear sky. As I’ve stated in previous posts, there has been nothing especially interesting moving through the yard. On this day the first bird up was the leucistic Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco that has been here for the past couple of months. It has gotten quite used to me and will come up next to me to eat food, but that means it’s much too close for photos. However I did mange a couple of good videos with my iPhone. It eventually moved away far enough for me to obtain photos. (Note the white around the base of its beak and at the base of its hood.)

Next up was a Brown creeper which visited the watercourse for a bath, halving the distance from which I usually have to photograph it. Realizing the opportunity, I took 42 photos of it in and around the watercourse! I’m not sure these photos are any better than others I get from further away, but closer is definitely better because the photos can be enlarged more.

I had several visits from Golden-crowned kinglets, all or at least mostly males. These are regular visitors to the yard in the winter but are difficult to photograph because of their activity level.

This is one of the Golden-crowned-kinglet’s cousins, a Ruby-crowned kinglet... on drugs!

Here’s another frequent visitor (for apparently the second winter in a row)… an Orange-crowned warbler. It accesses all three type of feeders (peanut, suet and peanut pieces/sunflower) I have. In this case, as you can see, it’s on the peanut feeder!

So nothing particularly unusual, but some nice photos nevertheless.

And just before constructing this blog on the afternoon of January 23, 2025, I looked out my kitchen window and saw that both a male and female Hairy woodpecker were back after being been missing in action for several weeks! (No photos.)

In early January, 2026, on many days I’ve been spending time in the yard photographing birds but the weather has taken its toll.  The cold doesn’t bother me… I have an improvised electric muffler to help keep my hands warm so I can operate my camera. But there’s nothing I can do about the rain.. it darkens the light available for photography, wets camera equipment and can show up in photos. So my time outside for birding photography has been somewhat limited. 

Added to the environmental problems, as I believe I’ve mentioned in prior posts, for the most part I’m seeing the same birds day after day. I’ve been getting some very good photographs, but there’s not much point in posting photos of the same birds. 

All of this said, on January 9, 2026, I had a fairly productive afternoon and was able to photograph a few less frequent, but not rare, visitors. 

I had both Golden-crowned kinglets (four on one visit!)…

and Ruby-crowned kinglets (this one a male)…

 I don’t have very good habitat for Pacific wrens, but this winter I have been seeing one on an almost daily basis. The wrens prefer the undergrowth and are always on the move, so even when I do see one it’s rare that I can get a photograph. On this day the wren decided to take a bath in the watercourse, giving me a rare opportunity for photos. (I saw a Bewick’s wren at almost the same time and location but was unable to get a photo of it.) 

This is presumably the same Orange-crowned warbler that was here last winter. It’s a daily visitor. Although primarily an insect eater, this wren has frequented my suet feeder, my peanut feeder (!) and my sunflower and peanut pieces platform feeder!  

On January 1, 2026, I had a visit from this Hermit thrush, a winter resident but uncommon in the yard, especially at this time of year. … 

And on January 6, I caught a quick glimpse of a White-throated sparrow in the yard but was unable to get a photo, nor have I seen it since.