Saturday, October 19, 2019, began as an overcast day with a threat of rain. By mid-day I was trying to make a decision as to whether or not to go birding or stay home and watch sports. I finally opted for the birding. It rained to some extent all afternoon long and I had driven most of the route I planned to take with nothing to show for it… not a single photo! Finally, at the HQ tract on Fir Island (Wiley Slough) I found this American Robin eating blackberries, which uncharacteristically still have some ripe, viable blackberries on the vines this year. If you look closely you can see the blackberry juice stain on the bird’s beak.

While at Wiley Slough I ran into a birding friend and had a nice chat. Shortly after our visit a more constant rain began to develop in the Fir Island area and I decided to head home. It was a beautiful day and driving across Fir Island I could see the different areas of showers developing and taking place.

I stopped by an area I had previously visited on Pleasant Ridge and managed to ‘pish’ a Ruby-crowned kinglet out of heavy vegetation which featured some beautiful maple leaves in fall colors. The kinglet was extremely active and difficult to photograph but I finally managed one decent photo. I could justifiably label this bird a female but have realized that the males are so adept at hiding their crown (especially from this angle) that I hesitate to make a sex determination.

I’m not very adept at identifying trees of the Pacific Northwest and hope this is a maple leaf!

The last leg of my excursion was a trip around March Point where I photographed this Red-tailed hawk in an interesting pose.

As I continued my trip I encountered this Great Blue Heron which was more ‘photographable’ than many I had seen this day.

Continuing around the point I found a pair of Bald eagles sitting on top of adjacent power poles.

Not long after I returned home the sun broke through and bathed the town in a bright yellow light we could see from our house. Too late for my birding excursion but a nice tribute to another Pacific Northwest fall day!

On Monday, October 14, 2019, I had a combination of driving in the neighborhood and yard photography. I began the day monitoring the madrone berries to photograph what was eating them. This European starling, and a few of its friends, were in one of the madrone trees.

In the past couple of days I had gotten brief views of male Varied thrushes in the madrone trees, but photos proved difficult to come by. Persistence paid off… I finally obtained a photo of a (male) Varied thrush eating madrone berries.

For the past couple of weeks or so we have had at least one female Varied thrush visiting the water features in the yard. The bird proved extremely cautious and despite my best efforts, I had not been able to get a photo. Upon arriving back at the house today I finally obtained a photo of a female Varied thrush… at first entering the yard…

and after a few minutes entering our watercourse.

About the same time a couple of Yellow-rumped warblers (Audubon’s race) accessed the watercourse.

Back on the road again I obtained this photo of a male House sparrow…

and this male Spotted towhee.

I saw the Barred owl, featured in my last post, on October 11, 2019. But it wasn’t the first, or what I considered the most interesting bird I saw that day. As I believe I mentioned, my prime consideration for the location I was monitoring was to try to photograph American robins eating madrone berries, and I succeeded to some extent. However the robins would come and go and even when they were present they weren’t always where they could be photographed.

I spent considerable ‘down time’ watching (and photographing) several species of sparrows come and go from the bushes beside me. This included Golden-crowned sparrows,

House sparrows,

Song sparrows,

a Fox sparrow,

Dark-eyed juncos, Spotted towhees, White-crowned sparrows

(seven sparrow species)… and one other very significant sparrow species.

I was only casually watching the White-crowned sparrows… all appeared to be juveniles (I seldom see the tan morph in this area) when I saw a sparrow that looked different. A closer examination revealed it was a White-throated sparrow (an eighth sparrow species, all in a rather small area, although not all at the same time!). I’ve only seen a White-throated sparrow 5-6 times in my life, and I haven’t any idea how I would find one if I tried! So here is the White-throated sparrow… seen over a three-day period and at a cost of some 6-8 hours thus far.

And I don’t want to leave out one other visitor to the same location… a Bewick’s wren that responded to ‘pishing’.

For the last several days I’ve been trying to photograph American robins eating madrone berries in the Cap Sante neighborhood. We have a couple of madrone trees that are loaded with berries. It’s not as easy as it might seem, and I’ve spent MANY hours at it with some fairly good results but at a cost of a sore neck and at least one other anatomical area that will remain undisclosed!

When things get slow with the berry-eaters I take a tour of the neighborhood looking for other interesting birds/photographic opportunities and visiting with any neighbors I find in yards or walking the neighborhood. I was on my second or third tour of the neighborhood when I spied a gray blob about eye level in our neighborhood’s wetland. I paused, backed the car for a better view, and found I was looking at a Barred owl sitting on a limb… in the open! I immediately began taking photos and managed 125 before I finally left the owl almost two hours later. I was able to notify many neighbors who were able to see the owl.

By the time I had left the wetland the owl had flown from its initial perch to one higher up in a tree, but it was still in the wetland. So here are some of the photos I took…

Before finding the owl I had another unusual encounter with a bird I’ve seen only five or six times in my life, but I’m saving those photos until I have a little more time to organize those photos. Stay tuned!

I won’t say our fall migration has made up for the lack of birds we should have had this past summer, but at least it’s trying! However, we have had an obstacle to the number of birds in the yard for the past several weeks, and here it is…

These birds (accipiters) mainly feed on other birds and are especially fond of visiting areas where large populations of birds congregate… in other words, the yards containing bird feeders. I sent a photo to a raptor contact in Seattle, grousing about this visitor. His response: “When you feed birds, you feed ALL the birds!”

Moving on, here is a male Anna’s hummingbird who is apparently signing on for the winter. We have at least three Anna’s hummingbirds in the yard, and I think the other two are females but can’t rule out juvenile males. The first photo below was taken at some distance and doesn’t have the quality that closer photos might, but it shows the bird’s gorget reflecting which I think is interesting. On this occasion this bird spent considerable time hovering around the yard so I obtained a photo not involving flowers.

Again I had visits from at least two Yellow-rumped warblers. I’m still trying to figure out why they named these Yellow-rumped warblers! (As you can see, the yellow rump is not always visible.)