This past week or so we’ve had good weather and I have spent considerable time focused (pun intended) on the madrona tree in the neighborhood.  It is still very full of berries and there are others on which the berries haven’t even ripened, so the subject matter seems like it will be around for awhile.  Mindful of the once-a-year opportunity, and grateful for the nice weather, I’ve continued taking photographs of the birds in and around the madrona trees.  They are a veritable bonanza, with many different species taking advantage of the food sources (berries and insects) that the tree provides.  It’s tedious… I have probably spent more than a dozen hours at my mobile post and if you think you are tired of seeing birds in the madrona tree, please appreciate the hundreds of photographs I am still culling and processing to obtain some good images.

That having been said, I would like to list some of the birds I’ve seen in and around the trees…

• American robin
• Northern flicker
• Varied thrush
• Chickadee, Black-capped and Chestnut-backed
• Orange-crowned warbler
• Dark-eyed junco, Oregon race
• Cedar waxwing
• Golden-crowned sparrow
• Fox sparrow
• Song sparrow
• House sparrow
• Spotted towhee
• Kinglet, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned
• Hermit thrush!

I may have left off a species or two, but I think you get the idea.  Keep in mind that some of the species I’ve listed are not berry/seed eaters and visit the tree for insects or just because other birds are present.  So now a few more photos…

American Robin

Northern Flicker

Spotted Towhee

Cedar waxwing

Varied Thrush!

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Many of the madrone tree berries are at full ripeness and are being accessed by American robins, Northern flickers and other birds.  The berries provide a nice background for photographs.  These photos were taken around the Cap Sante area this past weekend.

And while I was out photographing robins in the madrones, I happened across this Orange-crowned warbler looking for insects in the Ocean Spray bushes.  In confirming the identity of this warbler I must admit that I never realized how much this warbler could look like a female MacGillivray’s warbler.  They both have broken eye rings but I believe that the MacGilivray’s warbler’s “hood” extends further down its breast.

On Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 we had a break in the weather and I used the opportunity to forgo my usual morning nap and head out birding for the day.  It was a good choice.

As I drove the March Point Road I was disappointed to see that the tide was out.  This normally has two downsides… there aren’t as many shorebirds and any shorebirds or waterfowl I find are further away, therefore my picture resolution will not be as good.  I had driven most of the shoreline portion of the drive when I spied a Great Blue heron fishing in the shallows.  I watched it for a minute and took a couple of photos.  Just as I decided to move on and the car was rolling behind a bush I saw it catch a rather large fish.  I backed up and began taking photos.  I have fishing/outdoor friends who I’m sure can identify this fish, and if I find out what it is I’ll modify this post since the fish looked rather interesting.  It appeared to have lots of fins and spines and looked not at all appetizing to me, but in the end that didn’t save it from the heron who, after lining it up with it’s beak, swallowed it in one fast, fluid move!

I next happened on what was apparently an apple tree… one I had driven by many times before except that this time I realized that there were some House finches feeding on the apples.  I didn’t have good lighting but saved several of the photos anyway.

Male House Finch eating an apple

Next up was Fir Island and the Jensen Access (WA Department of Fish & Wildlife) where I managed to photograph one or more Song sparrows and a Marsh wren.  I also saw a bright yellow warbler but it managed to elude me by descending from a tree in which it was perched into the tangle of blackberry bushes below.

Marsh Wren

At the Jensen Access I met with a photographer/friend and we drove to the WADF&W HQ tract.  There I found quite a few Cedar waxwings, most of which were juveniles without a crest, a Winter wren (now known as the Pacific wren) and a Hermit’s thrush.

Pacific Wren, formerly known as the Winter Wren

Pacific Wren, formerly known as the Winter Wren

I normally wouldn’t include this photo of the Hermit’s thrush but I have very few photos of them and I had a friend asking about one that had been killed in a window strike, so here it is.  Note the contrasting reddish/brown tail.

Hermit Thrush

Late (too late for photos) we had a Hermit’s thrush visit out yard with at least six of its cousins, American robins.  If memory serves me correctly that’s only about the second one we’ve seen in the five years we’ve lived at this location!

And just when I feel the obligation for a post, yet don’t have any fresh photos, fortune seems to shine my way.  On the way back from breakfast on 9/21 I noted that a regular visitor, a Pied -billed grebe, had returned from wherever it has been for the summer.  I needed to run an errand and a while later loaded my camera and monopod in the car and headed back down to the marina.  By this time the grebe had gone but there was a Harbor seal in the area so I decided to see if it would pass my way.  It didn’t, but I kept noticing a slight disturbance by the edge of the water… too shallow for a seal.  After watching for awhile I spied a mink.  Sometime in the past year a group of women rowers (all friends) were kind enough to take me on an excursion to photograph the mink, but we didn’t see any on the morning I was in the boat.  However I had gotten a recent report that one had been seen just outside the marina and now I had found one that had migrated deep into the marina.  I probably took about 80 photos… here are a few of the best.

While I was stalking the mink I noticed about five Killdeer along the shore and took some photos of them.

Killdeer

I thought we were supposed to have rain, but since we didn’t and it was partly cloudy I decided to spend some time in the yard since it’s been a good week for birds in the yard.  It wasn’t long before a Yellow-rumped warbler visited the watercourse… it had very pale colors and was probably either a female or a juvenile.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Next up was a Golden-crowned kinglet that made several trips to the watercourse and ended its visit by taking a bath.  I obtained some better photos of the kinglet but I’m posting this one so that you can see that in addition to the golden crown, this bird, like its cousin the Ruby-crowned kinglet, has a bright orange crown that it can selectively show.  The orange is usually covered by the yellow crown, but in this photo you can see a hint of the orange.  I think that the light coloration at the base of the bird’s beak indicates that it’s the product of this year’s breeding.

Golden-crowned kinglet with usually hidden orange crown showing

I promised some surprise photographs in my last post and we’ll be into them shortly.  Yesterday I was driving my wife through the neighborhood on our way to the store when some movement in a neighbor’s cedar tree got my attention.  I focused just in time to see a large wing protrude from behind a branch.  I backed my car around the corner (technically illegal in most jurisdictions!), parked in front of the neighbors house and got out of my car to investigate.  Fortunately I didn’t have to ask permission to trespass as the neighbor had seen me and come out of the house to see what I was doing.  A little moving around garnered us an angle where we could see a Barred owl in her tree.

For at least a year we’ve heard owls calling in the Cap Sante neighborhood.  I had other neighbors call me once when an owl was adjacent to their house, but it flushed as I crept around the house for a photo.  But this experience would be different and allow me to finally obtain some good photographs of the owl.

I rushed home and obtained my camera and returned and took over forty photos of the bird.  When I returned from the store it was still there but flew shortly after I arrived.  However my wife passed the location a couple of hours later and she said it was back.  I was hopeful that it might lay up there every day, but there was no sign of it this morning.  So without further tale, I give you one of our neighborhood Barred owls…

It was a great day for photography and the photography part of my day ended with the Barred owl.  But… the birding part of my day hadn’t ended.  At home in my office later in the afternoon my wife called to me that there was a warbler in the front yard.  Sightings had been meager over the past several weeks, but I looked out my office window and spied a Golden-crowned kinglet… and a lot of other bird activity.  I stepped out on my balcony and almost immediately saw a Brown creeper making its way up a dead tree in the yard and then soon after that I saw what was very clearly an Orange-crowned warbler.  Sorry, no photos of these birds but their presence may mean I’m back in the yard photography ‘business’.