As of late I have more news than photos, but the individual who considers himself my editor is griping about the lack of posts.  So here’s a post with the news…

I shipped my precious primary lens to Nikon’s repair facility in Los Angeles almost two weeks ago, dreading the repair charge I was assessed two years ago.  (I won’t say what the previous lens repairs cost, but a lot of people have cameras that don’t cost as much!)  Nikon was very prompt in telling me that the repairs would be covered under warranty (which had long ago expired), a fact I appreciated and decided not to argue!  Nikon still has the lens and its status is currently listed as a “parts hold”.

So I haven’t taken any photos since at least early February.  There are no new photos to post, but to appease those of you who access this site for photos I’ll post one of a male Mountain bluebird I took outside Winthrop last summer.  (There is a more dramatic canvass print of this bird displayed in Mary Ann’s Kitchen in Anacortes.)

I was just thinking that we would make it through this season without a significant snow when at least those of us living on the east side of Anacortes managed two.  Our second, on, February 24, was very wet and didn’t last long due to higher temps, but nevertheless was significant.  Both of my observations I’m relating here occurred on that day.

The first observation occurred in my yard during the heaviest part of the snow.  A Ruby-crowned kinglet, a species in unusually short supply at my house this season, and a Bewick’s wren took turns accessing my hanging, inverted suet feeder.  These are both birds that aren’t usually found at suet feeders, but I have had other occurrences of each at the suet feeder this season.

The temperature never dipped below freezing for this second snow but the sheer volume of snow covered the ground for an hour or so.  After most of the snow melted I headed out to make up for some of the walks I missed earlier in the week due to weather.  For about the past year or so I’ve been able to hand-feed Chestnut-backed chickadees and an occasional Red-breasted nuthatch along my route.  (I take great pride in feeding no-waste seed and am NOT responsible for the peanuts, corn, milo and millet that other well-meaning nature lovers leave.)  I’ve noticed several species of sparrows that seem interested in obtaining food from my hand, but until yesterday none could work up the courage to doing so.

Yesterday (2/24/2018) I noticed a Song sparrow approaching unusually close, and it finally took the plunge and hopped onto my hand!  Unlike the other birds which always take a single seed and fly away with it, the sparrow stayed for several “beak-fulls” before retreating back into the bushes.  Although I stayed quite a while longer, it never returned for more seed.

I figured this might be a unique occurrence, but when I returned for another walk the next day the Song sparrow made another trip to my hand.  After it finished I noticed another that seemed interested and extended my hand to within about three inches of the bird before it thought better of the risk and retreated into the bushes.

I haven’t been able to get out for photography much lately to to the heavy overcast and rain.  However I did manage an outing on 1/30/2018 and managed to get some photos.

This first photo is of a Black-capped chickadee taken at a favorite stop on Pleasant Ridge.  I’ve photographed many birds at this location previously but never gotten one to pose among the rose hips.

Just outside the entrance to the Wiley Slough F&W HQ tract I found about 8-10 Western meadowlarks, birds I see only rarely in Skagit County and almost always at a distance that precludes good photos.  In this case one of the meadowlarks flew to the near side of a deciduous tree and posed for a few photos.

On my way across Fir Island I encountered three pre-adult Bald eagles.  One was walking about 20′ behind two adult swans who weren’t that happy with the slow motion scenario! It finally flew and I took this photo of one of its companions.

Later, on my return home, I encountered a male Bufflehead that was intent on working the shoreline.  I’ve gotten lots of photos of female Buffleheads but rarely good photos of a male.  While this bird at first glance appears black and white, if you look closely in the right light you can see that the bird’s head is actually a dark green.

On a sad note, my Nikon 200-400mm F4.0 has been making odd noises when focusing.  I just had it repaired a couple of years ago at an exorbitant cost.  However I’ve decided to send it in again before the spring migration arrives and I miss some good photos of the spring migrants.

In my most recent post (from early this, 1/20) morning I complained about the dearth of winter visitors. This afternoon my wife alerted me to the presence of a male Varied thrush in our watercourse.  I grabbed my camera and tried a different strategy… sneaking out the front door where I was hidden by a wall and a large pot of bamboo.  The technique worked and I was able to set up without the thrush seeing me.

What’s that clicking sound???

I was careful, and lucky… the thrush puttered around the watercourse and yard for 10-15 minutes.  I managed a LOT of photos, not wanting this opportunity to get away from me.

As soon as the thrush left the yard a Golden-crowned kinglet, a species that has been conspicuously absent from the yard this winter, flew into the watercourse but failed to present an opportunity for me to photograph it.

Since I had a good blind location and there were numerous birds in the yard, I remained in my location for awhile.

We had at least seven Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard…

There were at least three Spotted towhees in the yard, this one eating blossoms, buds or fruit off of an Evergreen huckleberry…

This Song sparrow took break from feeding in the yard to visit the watercourse…

A male Anna’s hummingbird took a break from guarding feeders for a brief bath in the watercourse.  I briefly had an opportunity for a photo of it hovering above the watercourse but I wasn’t fast enough to take advantage of the situation.

Finally (by this time I was getting cold!) I noted a Brown creeper visiting our stone birdbath across the yard.  This is a fairly rare visitor to our yard.  In this case I was lucky in that I was in position with my camera ready when I saw it.  It was driven off by another bird but not before I documented its visit.

My posts this winter have been somewhat sporadic.  There were the three hand/arm surgeries in October (from which I’m still attempting to recover my typing skills), then there has been a considerable amount of rain, heavy overcast and now wind in the interim.  Added to these problems is the fact that I just haven’t encountered as many interesting birds as in some past years.

Despite my handicap I recently managed to generate a 14-page vignette for a history project relating to my elementary school, but every key accessed by my ring and little fingers on my right hand still requires considerable slowing.  (My worst nightmare is a word like “lollipop” but fortunately that word doesn’t arise in my writings very often!)

I was recently made aware of reports of a Black phoebe that had been seen at the Headquarters Tract of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) on Fir Island.  The phoebe was considerably out of range, usually being found only as far north as southern Oregon.  We’ve seen many on our travels through CA, AZ and NM.

The WDFW HQ tract on Fir Island is a large piece of land with a vast area of phoebe habitat (they’re almost always found around water) and I had no idea where the bird might be.  On Jan 18 I drove around the two parking lots and was on my way out when I spied a small bird fly-catching about 100 feet away.  I parked and carefully moved down to Wiley Slough and over the next couple of hours managed a few photos of the phoebe.

On Jan 19 I returned despite windy conditions only to find at least 5-6 (apparently juvenile Barn?) swallows working the area.  The phoebe made a couple of brief appearances but was probably discouraged by all of the swallow activity, which, by the way, made it very difficult to track the location of the phoebe.  As I was leaving the tract I again found the phoebe and managed more photos, but at a decided greater distance than I would have liked.

While at Wiley Slough waiting for the phoebe I amused myself by photographing a couple of female Buffleheads that sporadically cruised up and down the slough.

Each winter the cold weather and snow drives the beautiful Varied thrushes down from the mountains.  They begin appearing at our house in the fall but return to their higher elevation breeding grounds in the spring.  As far as photography is concerned, each year the Varied thrush is a target bird for me.  We almost always have at least a few visit our yard but this year the visits have been somewhat scarcer than in prior years and the birds have been much shyer.

I’ve had some luck with finding one or two in the area of the Cap Sante wetland on occasion but on Saturday, January 6, 2018 I found the situation for which I had been hoping.  There were several thrushes around the wetland.  Most were sorting through the leaf litter but I think some may have been visiting holly trees in the area.  I found an accommodating male that allowed me to creep to within about eight feet of him and I took almost 100 photos, most of which had to be discarded due to his almost constant motion of turning over the leaf litter looking for bugs and worms.  (He appeared to be VERY successful!)

Both the Varied thrush and the American robin are members of the thrush family (“cousins”, so to speak).  For contrast, here is a robin that was in the same area…

Strangely enough, during episodes of heavy snowfall I have seen the thrushes eat seed off the ground whereas robins won’t touch it.

After I had almost exhausted my film supply  🙂  I drove down to the northwest corner of the Cap Sante marina where earlier in the morning I had seen three Pied-billed grebes, one more than I had ever seen there previously.  I took few photos of them before calling it a day for my photography.

And a little hint for my loyal readers…  this May (5, 10 &17) I will emerge from retirement and again teach a beginning birding course for the Anacortes Senior College.  Interested parties can begin signing up for the three-week course in February.  I’ll post additional details on this blog before the end of January.