I’ve had a lot going on recently so I’m not posting as often. (I need an assistant!) My birding activities (observation and photography) are continuing but posting has become secondary to several other projects. In addition I’m no longer “touch-typing” so narratives take longer.

I had an unusually robust yard birding day on October 1, 2025, so I’m posting some photos from that endeavor.

This male Hairy woodpecker first appeared several weeks ago but has been absent since an initial appearance. On this day it reappeared. A female has been here daily.

This was the second day in a row for one or more Yellow-rumped warblers. On this day I had several visiting the yard, apparently part of a migration. These two photos were taken at widely different times and are probably of different birds.

This is either an Orange-crowned warbler or a juvenile MacGillivray’s warbler.

The Dark-eyed (Oregon) juncos are beginning to make a return to the yard after leaving for the breeding season. It will probably be my most numerous bird in the yard (with the possible exception of House sparrows!) during the winter season. Based on the color of the mantels, this first bird is probably a female and the second bird is definitely a male.

House finches are attracted to my madrone tree which is full of berries this year. Interestingly, the finches don’t eat the berry whole but eat the flesh and/or seeds while the berry remains attached to the stem.

One of at least three (invasive) Eastern Gray squirrels that visit the yard on a regular basis, often disrupting my birding photography by scaring birds from water features.

A White-crowned sparrow, a hangover from our recent breeding season, They are usually absent from the yard in the winter.

A Golden-crowned sparrow, a thee-season (fall, winter and spring) yard resident. Our first of the season appeared September 11 and the second one arrived just a day or so ago. In a few weeks I expect to have 8-10 overwintering.

This is the third day in a row a female Varied thrush has visited the yard. It’s probably the same ‘first of the season’ species that visited about three days ago. It was probably initially attracted by the abundant crop of madrona berries in my trees but it’s now a big fan of the water features.

And my favorite images of the day, a juvenile Northern flicker (female) taking a leisurely bath. It’s unusual for me to see a flicker bathing although they often frequent the water features for a drink.

An American robin enjoying a cold respite in one of the water features…

And yet another visitor utilizing one of the water features, a Golden-crowned kinglet…

Just for the record, I had a relatively rare (for the yard) Hermit thrush show at one of the water features in the yard on September 13, but the photos I obtained were through double-paned glass and didn’t turn out well.

POSTSCRIPT (October 3, 2025): I had just finished posting to my blog on October 2, 2025, ending it with a note about the sighting (but no postable photographs) of a Hermit thrush I had seen on September 13, 2025.  

On this day it was 7:45am, overcast and too dark for photographs. I looked out my kitchen window and noticed what seemed like an unusual amount bird activity for that time of morning. My attention was drawn to a bird with its back to me that  I couldnt identify. As it turned, and using my binoculars, I identified it as a Hermit thrush!  

I grabbed my camera and cautiously went outside, but the bird was gone. I decided to wait awhile and about 15 minutes later the thrush returned to my most distant water feature!  I thought it too dark for photos but upped my ISO and took photos anyway. 

Adobe Lightroom, as it has done so many times before, saved the day. This isn’t what I consider a good photo, but given the conditions under which it was taken, it’s certainly acceptable under my standards. 

I’ve been somewhat remiss in posting to my blog site lately. Fall migration has been in full swing since early August and I have been taking advantage of all the photographic opportunities it offers. I try to spend some time in the yard each day which provides me with numerous photos that must be processed. In some cases I try to document my sightings with written accounts. It’s a time-consuming activity. 

At the same time I’m trying to deal with home issues, the largest of which is a kitchen damaged by a leaking icemaker water line. My refrigerator has been in the garage for almost three months now and planning for and preparing meals has become an onerous task!  

But back to the birding!  On August 31, 2025, I had a stellar day of photographing unusual and migrating birds!  I took 552 photos which must be processed. In between bouts of photography I made a list of all the species of birds I had seen in the yard during the day. The list contained 21 species, many of which are rare visitors. And I got some very good photographs, both of the rarer visitors and of the more common birds I see every day. 

This preamble has already used up a lot of electronic ink with no birding images or listings being conveyed, the reason being I’ve only just begun to process the day’s photos. I’m going to post photos of a single (hopefully non-migrant!) species now and post photos of some of the migrants in a second post. 

One of my most interesting arrivals has been that of male and female Hairy woodpeckers. The male made only a single appearance but it was his presence that alerted me to the species. It was my first yard observation of the species in at least five years. My identification of the male led me to wonder if one of my presumed female Downy woodpeckers was actually a Hairy woodpecker. I shared photos of the suspected female Hairy woodpecker with more experienced birding friends and they confirmed my identification!  

I won’t launch into my shortcomings as a birder but it’s nice to have more experienced birding friends who are willing to donate their time and expertise to my occasional needs!  

So it’s finally time to arrive at some photos!  The male Hairy woodpecker was photographed on August 17 and I haven’t seen it since. The female has now become a daily visitor to the peanut and suet feeders and the photos of her were all taken on August 31.  To help with identification I measured the peanut feeder. It is 8.5” from the bottom of the feeder to the top of the top row of holes. 

The following two photos are of the male Hairy woodpecker…

The following two photos are of the female Hairy woodpecker...

The following photo is of a male Downy woodpecker for comparison…

See the identification problem?

For a little over a week now I’ve been getting a trickle of fall migrants. The fall migration through my yard is never as abundant as the spring migration, but it’s nevertheless interesting because it breaks the relative boredom of summer. I’m also still getting significant numbers of juvenile birds which can make my assignment of sex to my photos difficult as the juveniles of some species can appear to be adult females.

This post was spurred by two sightings of two or more male Townsend’s warblers on August 16, 2025. The first sighting occurred at 1:30pm and the second at 5:40pm. Although both sightings were males, I have no way of knowing whether or not it was the same bird. Since I usually only get about one or two sighting of this species each year, to get two sightings, both with photos, on the same day, was significant.

Since late July, and up until just a few days ago, I’ve had dayly visits from Black-headed grosbeaks that I suspect are juveniles. Adults were notably absent during the breeding season.

The migration seemed to really get underway on August 2 when I had multiple visits from one or more Wilson’s warblers.

On August 3 I had a visit from a MacGillivray’s warbler. This bird is so rare in my yard that I’ve only had two or three recorded visits in the 17 years I’ve lived here. Fortunately, I was outside with my camera for the bird’s visit and it spent significant time around the watercourse!

On August 10 I had a visit from a female Western tanager. They are generally around all summer but are rare visitors to my yard.

August 12 brought a visit from another Wilson’s warbler and a photo that I’ll probably add to my framed canvass prints! (It isn’t either of these images.) On the same day I had visit from a camera-shy Orange-crowned warbler that I was ;unable to photograph.

A complication was introduced to my photography efforts on August 14 when an accipiter, almost certainly a Cooper’s hawk, flew into trees on the outskirts of the yard and remained there for an unusual amount of time. I obtained a couple of “record” photographs but nothing worth posting.

I spent a relatively short time in the yard late in the afternoon of August 8, 2025. I had a Black-headed grosbeak enter the yard and I probably got my best photos of the species this year. This bird, and others that have visited lately, are probably juveniles.

I also had a Rufous hummingbird stop for a rare bath. A couple of years ago this used to be a regular occurrence but for this past two years bathing in the watercourse has been vey rare.

And finally, a Brown creeper, a regular visitor, stopped by for a bath at its favorite water feature, a stone bird bath.

After having a stellar yard birding day the previous day, on Sunday, August 3, 2025, I was looking forward to the possibility of another such day. Again, the temperature was in the low 60’s and the day was overcast. 

I arrived in the yard a little after noon and was occupied with some other task when I looked up to see a Black-headed grosbeak prominently perched on one of my staging sticks. I wasn’t fully prepared for photography and the bird flew before I could get a photo. 

A juvenile Brown-headed cowbird accessed the stone bird bath feature but was too far away for a good photo. It seemed rather late for the juvenile cowbird. I hadn’t seen any in a couple of weeks. 

I noticed another bird at the stone birdbath and thought at first it was a juvenile sparrow, but looking through my telephoto lens I could see that it was a thrush…  I was hopeful that it was a rarer thrush, but after seeing my photos I decided it was an unusually shy American robin.  

Next I was surprised by a Townsend’s chipmunk which popped up on the opposite side of the watercourse and stood on its hind legs long enough for me to get good photos. Other than the leucistic chipmunk I had seen in the yard the previous day, this was the first chipmunk I’ve seen in the yard this year. 

As I sat surveying the yard I was surprised to see a bird emerge from under the evergreen huckleberry tree immediately adjacent to the watercourse. My first impression, due to the prominent white eye rings, was that the bird was a vireo.  (Birders may have a difficult time understanding this, but my primary objective is insuring that I get one or more good photographs… I’ll identify the bird later!). The bird was hesitant in approaching the watercourse, which gave me numerous opportunities for photographs. 

As I realized I had numerous good photographs I began to look at the bird with the objective of identifying it. The split eye rings and contrast between the head and body jogged an old memory… the bird was a juvenile MacGillivray’s warbler, perhaps the second rarest warbler I’ve had in the yard and one for which I may lack any good photos. 

To a great extent the eruption of Pine siskins I had in late spring and early summer are gone, with the species now a somewhat rarity in the yard. 

I was fortunate to host an influx of Red crossbills  for most of the summer, but now have not seen one in the past two days despite significant observation time. Most of the crossbills were juveniles and lacked the color of adults, and most of the adults were more drab than I had seen in the past.