More Weekend Birds

We're an equal food/shelter opportunity yard, and the first creature up isn't a bird.  We have a new visitor, a chipmunk.  Last week I saw a rather large rat emerging from the same brush pile utilized by the chipmunk.  We've also had Douglas squirrels, Eastern Gray squirrels (very unwelcome visitors), a coyote about a week ago and occasional cottontails. 

We've also had our share of young birds that have been raised in the area this year.  I'm including a large number of photos in this post so I may list this year's production in a future post.  But among the juveniles...

An American goldfinch (as told by the burnished gold color on its wings)...

Ajuvenile Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race).  I've mentioned in prior posts that this was the first year we had a pair in the general area.  In the past they have all left for higher environs, but this year a pair stayed in the area and produced young which are in the yard.  

Here's another (or maybe the same depicted in my prior post) juvenile Spotted towhee.  we have these at several stages, so presumably we had multiple families raise young during the season.  On Sunday morning I looked up in the bushes near my photographic lair and saw a young Spotted towhee that was almost entirely black... in fact, it reminded me of a Black phoebe.  It was only about six feet away but I need about 15' minimum distance to get my lens to focus, so there was no hope of photographing it.  I saw a young one today that was morphing into adult plumage, so I figure there were at least three successful breeding efforts in the area. 

While I'm on the subject of Spotted towhees, I photographed this magnificent male in the yard.  They don't get much better than this! 

We also have at least one juvenile Black-headed grosbeak in the yard plus a pair of adults.  (I believe this is the juvenile.)  I obtained better photos than this, but my purpose in including this photo is to show just how well the grosbeak's plumage blends with the native madrone trees.  It's like they were made for each other.  I often see a grosbeak fly into one of our madrone's but it's usually all but impossible to see them while they are in among the leaves.

We have both Chestnut-backed chickadees (depicted here) and Black-headed chickadees in the yard and both have raised young this year.  This one is standing in the watercourse in preparation for a bath.

And finally, we had a special, rare visitor.  This bird flew to one of the bird baths and I was trying to figure what species it was until I looked carefully through my telephoto lens.  It's a juvenile, female Red crossbill.  If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it you can view the bill in more detail.  There is just a hint of color on the base of the bird's breast and at the base of the bird's tail.  We normally only see one or two visits per season (if that) and this is our second.  It's been a good year! 

This is the second post I've done today, so be sure and view the prior post!