Another rather short afternoon in the yard on August 25, 2026. It started as a rather slow afternoon. I saw one interesting bird but it was back lit and there was no chance of me identifying it as it never came any where near ground level.

I was getting discouraged when I saw some movement in a madrone tree and upon viewing through my camera lens I could see it was a male Red Crossbill. It disappeared… as did all of the other birds in the yard.

I then saw some movement out by my brush pile and realized a friend was back… the Cooper’s hawk It came within good camera range but not so close that I couldn’t get the entire bird in the picture frame.