On Tuesday, Feb 23,2015, I headed out into the county for some birding.  I drove south to a site that had yielded no birds the previous day, but I had found birds here before and I was optimistic that it was only a matter of being at the site at the correct time and on the correct day.  My persistence payed off… I discovered a large number of birds, and on making my third round of a rather small circuit I discovered a puddle by the side of the road with adjacent bushes and a forest beyond.  I had overlooked the water on the previous circuits because I had been looking out the car window at eye level or above, and not down on the side of the road.  I knew when I found the water I was on to something and so sat in my car and waited for the birds to come to me.

n no time I had birds visiting the puddle and adjacent area.  I saw my first warbler of the year, an Orange-crowned, but it’s a year-round resident to at least some degree so this one probably wasn’t a harbinger of spring.

But let’s get to some of the photos…

This is a female Downy woodpecker, probably our most common woodpecker but sometimes difficult to photograph outside a controlled setting, i.e. , a yard with suet and hanging feeders.

Next a couple of Chestnut-backed chickadees.  There were many chickadees in this area.

There were also a lot of Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) in the area.  This one’s plumage is quite pale and is probably a female and/or first year bird.

And finally, as far as photos go, a Robin enjoying a dip in the puddle…

Monday, Feb 16 dawned clear with only a very high, thin cloud layer developing in mid-afternoon.  I had plans to photograph a couple of birds on the overlook but my plans didn’t work out as well as I had hoped.  But I put in the time and as often happens in such cases, the day worked out just fine.

My day started when I photographed a male House sparrow on the way up to the overlook.  The bird was in a nice setting but was otherwise unremarkable until I processed the photos.  I then noticed that the bird apparently had a tick or some other abnormality attached to its left cheek.  I have never noticed this in any other bird I have photographed.

As soon as I arrived at the overlook I heard singing and saw a Bewick’s wren sitting on the exposed limb of a bush.  I couldn’t find an angle to eliminate the small branch between the bird and I but nevertheless obtained some nice photos.  Considering the problem I have just finding one of these birds I was happy to obtain a photograph.

I then ran through three more species of sparrows at the overlook… Song (this photo is one I actually took in my yard during a break), Golden-crowned and Fox, pictured here in that order.

While I was photographing the birds pictured above, I noticed some movement in a dead madrone tree out from the parking lot.  I looked and saw that an accipiter had flown in.  I carefully snapped a couple of photos but had/have no hope of identifying the raptor.  It’s either a Sharp-shinned hawk or a Cooper’s hawk… they both look very much alike and I’ve given up even trying to guess between the two species.  However I have sent the photos to a friend who is a much more accomplished birder than I and I’m hoping to hear back from him regarding the identification.  In the meantime you can perform your own research!   :  )

Finally, upon ending the break I took at the house I scattered a little “habitat enhancer” in the yard in the hope of drawing out our Slate-colored junco.  We’ve had one over-winter at the house for the past 7-8 years, and I hadn’t obtained a good photo of one with my good camera and lens.  The bird is substantially shyer than our Oregon juncos and doesn’t interact well with its cousins, but at one point it emerged in the yard and stood very still on a rock for a minute or two… time enough for me to obtain some excellent photos of it.  So here is the Dark-eyed junco of the Slate-colored race!

It wasn’t like I didn’t try to get hummingbird photos again today (Sunday, Feb 15, 2015).  The sun was out and it was 63-degrees with no clouds.  But the hummingbird, even though in the area, wouldn’t cooperate.  So I made do with a marina tour and some other birds in the area.  To wit…

Not the greatest photos, but I could hardly swim out to get better ones.  Shortly after I first arrived at the marina this Common loon surfaced with a crab about the size of my hand.  I couldn’t see any legs, so I think it might have already died.  After ‘breaking’ it for awhile it swallowed the crab whole!

I watched for a good while and have become somewhat adept at realizing when a loon intends to rise out of the water, so I was ready on the two occasions I witnessed.  (This is the same loon in both photos.)

Next up was a Spotted towhee that responded to some ‘habitat enhancer’.

While waiting for the hummingbird I saw a single (!) Cedar waxwing visiting some of the madrona trees.  I watched it for a couple of flights and then saw it fly into an area where I had photographed berries on a Hawthorn tree a few weeks ago.  I edged over to the tree and found it eating berries.  Unfortunately it stopped eating when I approached, but it remained in place and allowed me to take lots of photos.

Like the food addict that’s offered virtually unlimited free cake, I find it extremely difficult to resist the opportunity to to photograph the male Anna’s hummingbird in the neighborhood.  I’ll try to find something else to photograph this next week, but in the meantime here are just a few more photographs.

Wednesday, Feb 11, 2015 was not an encouraging day for photography.  It was overcast with no indication that things were going to improve that afternoon.  I had some non-photography/blog projects to work on and had looked forward to a little break.  However I made the mistake of driving by the Cap Sante Marina and saw a loon and decided that I would come back and try to photograph it.  When I returned a Great Blue heron flew into a different part of the marina so I stopped to obtain some photos of it.

After allowing an unusually extensive time for me to take photographs, it finally flew so I continued to the other part of the marina where I had seen the loon.  With the waterfowl there’s always the decision of which dock to take, as the birds are usually near the middle of the waterways between the docks.  If you aren’t careful you can drive the bird towards another dock which can necessitate a walk of several hundred yards before you even have a CHANCE to get closer!

But while I watched the loon to try to determine it’s direction, I noticed a disturbance in the water immediately adjacent to the fuel dock.  A couple of weeks previously I noticed similar activity and it turned out to be a couple of Hooded mergansers feeding UNDER the dock.  They surprised me when they surfaced and flew before I could photograph them.

On this occasion I resolved to be a little more careful, so I tried to blend into one of the fuel pumps and keep about a 300-degree lookout for something to surface.  With no warning a small waterfowl surfaced within about eight feet of me and I began taking photos.  The bird was absolutely fearless.   I realized that this was an unusual species that I had not previously photographed, but I had no idea what it was.  Over the next 10-15 minutes I took over 100 photos of the bird, some of which I’m sharing with you here.  Once back home and processing the photos I tentatively identified the bird as a Long-tailed duck.  A friend with much more birding experience than me told me that it was probably either a female or a juvenile since the male could be expected to have a long tail.

I next drove up to the Cap Sante Overlook to see if the male Anna’s hummingbird was again in the area… I hadn’t seen it for a couple of days.  The hummingbird was back, and at the location where I could photograph it.  I took some photos, but then realized that I might be able to reposition myself so that I wasn’t photographing the bird against a light (colorless) sky.  I repositioned and the bird returned, allowing me another set of photos with a dark background.  I noted that the bird’s gorget still reflected although there was not only no direct sunlight, but at least what could be characterized as medium cloud cover.