It’s been a while since I last posted.  My wife and I traveled to New Mexico for a little birding at the end of October, but that’s a tale I’ll embellish in my next blog post.  Most of the photos appearing in this post were taken last month with the exception of the last bird below.

This is a not-so-great photo of a Bewick’s wren in our yard.  I included it because our habitat is not that welcoming to wrens and they are fairly rare visitors.  So you might refer to this as an ‘appearance’ photograph… and I am appreciative for the visit!

We had a bumper crop of madrone berries this year, both in and out of the yard.  There’s a theory that when trees are stressed they might sense that they are in danger and to insure the survival of the species they produce extra seeds, in this case in the form of fruit.  The drought we had this summer definitely stressed the madrones, especially those growing on rock with shallow root systems.  This is a female House finch eating the madrone berries.  The larger birds (to wit, American robins) swallow the fruit whole while the finches eat off the fruit much like we eat an apple, a bite at a time.

This next series of photographs shows a gull which found a rather large crab immediately adjacent to the water.  Normally this would be a rather easy meal, but in this case the crab was large and the gull was unable (while I was watching) to pull off any legs, the usual means of attack.  I don’t know the outcome.

This next series of photos were taken in the Cap Sante Marina parking lot.  I was returning with a friend from an expedition to the Stanwood area to try to find the Tropical kingbird reputed to be there last week.  (I was zero for three on those efforts.)  As we passed the dog park this accipiter flew across the road in front of us and into the parking lot.  I followed and found it in a deciduous tree.  They are normally quite shy, but this one allowed me to take about ten photos and then move the car even closer to give my friend a better angle.  I got about four more photos at the closer range.  It finally flew, but I was very appreciative for the opportunity to photograph this species, an opportunity that only comes every couple of years and usually not under such favorable conditions.

I consider the Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawk species virtually indistinguishable, but a friend of mine who is a retired wildlife biologist tells me that this is a sub-adult Cooper’s hawk.

We’ve still got at least two male Anna’s hummingbirds in the yard and at least one female. One of the males is still trying to control the feeders.  This is the dominant male pictured below, with different lighting angles on the bird’s gorget.

Last week I made a couple of pre-winter excursions around the greater area.  I found this Killdeer, and two others, in one of the Cap Sante Marina parking lots.  There were about a dozen more in the area near the Northern Lights Casino where fireworks are sold twice a year.

And on a very unsuccessful photography expedition, I found this Great Blue heron just across the Swinomish Channel.  It was uncharacteristically tolerant of my vehicle, allowing me to take photographs and not flying due to my presence.

Finally, if you’ve ever been confused about the two main species of chickadees we have in the area, here are photos of each.  This first photo is of a Chestnut-backed chickadee, most easily identified when seen from the side or rear.

This second photo is of a Black-capped chickadee. The Black-capped chickadee very closely resembles the Carolina chickadee which is found in the southeastern US.

There are occasional sightings of the Mountain chickadee in our area.  I saw one in Washington Park many years ago but am still waiting for the first one to be seen in my yard.

On Sunday, 10/16/2016, we had blustery winds left over from the typhoon.  Under normal circumstances this would have discouraged birds from being in the yard but on this day we had lots of birds for an extended period of time.  Here are a few of them.

Despite, or maybe because of, the relative drought we experienced this past summer, the madrone trees are loaded with berries.  Yesterday we had American robins, House finches and Northern flickers partaking of the feast.

Pictured below is a female House finch eating the berries.  I noticed that the robins tend to swallow the berry whole while the smaller finches pick at the berries while still attached to the tree and eat them piecemeal.

I believe that we had at least three Yellow-rumped warblers that entered the yard.  They showed some interest in the watercourse but never came down to it for a drink or bath.  We only seem to get the Audubon race here… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Myrtle’s in our yard.

The bird below is an Orange-crowned warbler.  This one flew to the ground to catch an insect that it saw.

If you look closely at this photo you can see the insect in the bird’s mouth!

And finally, a Song sparrow that will presumably spend the winter with us.

After photographing the loon on Monday morning I returned to the house to find the yard full of birds.  So I transitioned to the yard and began photographing our visitors.

We had both kinds of kinglets, both Golden-crowned…

and Ruby-crowned.

Interestingly enough, I think we hosted our first juvenile Ruby-corwned kinglet, and I have to bestow the title of “Cutest Bird of the Year” on this youngster.  It was taken with the watercourse, returning time and time again to bathe and then preen around in the area.

We’re still hosting our male Hairy woodpecker, which I’ve featured in past blog posts…

But our most important, and rarest visitor of the day was a Hermit’s thrush.  I see one of these only rarely… maybe every 2-3 years or so.  I got a glimpse of what I think was the bird entering the yard, but it stuck to the ground, flew very rapidly and was very furtive.  I knew that we might have an unusual visitor but wasn’t sure what it was going to be.  Finally it appeared on the edge of the watercourse and gave me the opportunity for about 20 photos.

All precisely 3pm the show ended when our first accipiter (probably a Cooper’s hawk) in a couple of months flew through the yard.  I hated to see it because it puts some of our songbirds at risk as well as discourages them from entering the yard.

The weather has been changing and it seems that fall is here.  This is the time of year that I generally switch from photographing birds in the yard to making excursions to photograph waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors.  Monday morning signaled that change when members of the OARS group told me that they had seen loons just outside the marina.  I drove by the marina on the way home and there, in the NW corner of the marina, was this season’s first loon!  I ran a fairly lengthy errand and when I went back by the marina the loon was still there.  I went home, grabbed my camera and got back down in time to take a couple of dozen photos of the loon.  These aren’t the best I’ve ever taken, but they do signal the change in the focus of my photographic activities.