WA Park, Burrow's Overlook Birds

This morning (4/9/2010) I took my usual early morning weekday walk in Washington Park with a friend. We stopped at the Burrow’s Island overlook and it wasn’t long before I spotted a Townsend’s Solitaire in the top of a small fir tree. I had other plans for the morning but it was a beautiful sunny day so I returned about noon to see if it might still be there and I might be able to obtain some photos of it. There was a strong wind blowing from the west and I correctly figured my chances of seeing the bird were substantially diminished. I was right… it was nowhere to be found. However this is at least the third year one has been in that area and I’ll keep my eyes open on future walks.

While we were in the area a swallow flew overhead but didn’t land. This area has been an attractive one for swallows for several years and I imagine it won’t be long before a few are sitting in the trees.

While in the area I obtained some good photographs of an American robin which kept following me. I was wearing a faded orange jacket and the bird probably thought that I resembled its mother! There were a pair of Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) in the area and they were only a couple of hundred feet from where a pair had nested under a fern about three years ago. I managed to photograph one bathing in a puddle. Pishing brought up a beautiful Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race) in full breeding plumage, but it left before I could get a photo when a woman came down the road walking her dog.

I later managed to photograph a Ruby-crowned kinglet, but as is often the case in photography I encountered a problem. The kinglet had a prominent shadow across its head cast by a stick.

And last, but certainly not least in size, a sub-adult Bald eagle came flying over the overlook.

Return of the Pine SIskins

Perhaps the latest, biggest news here at the house was the return of the Pine siskins last week.  Their presence was very reliable during the second quarter of 2009 but I only logged them in the yard in about three weeks after that, the last time being in the week of 10/5/2009.  Over the years the Pine siskins have often been our most populous winter species but for reasons that are unknown to me, they are one of the species that seem to be intermittent.  For the past couple of  weeks we've had a pair in the yard and they are now being joined by their friends the American goldfinches. 

I seldom see the Pine siskins feeding on the ground.  None of my feeders have perches (they are all of the clinging type) but the siskins are quite adept at hanging from the feeders for an extended length of time and eating the hull-less sunflower seeds I provide
. 
It can be easy for a novice birder to confuse a female goldfinch, a female House finch and a Pine siskin.  Both the female goldfinch and most Pine siskins exhibit pale yellow feathers on their wings, and both the Pine siskin and female house finch have vertical breast-striping, but the Pine siskin has an exceptionally sharp, pointed beak which differentiates it from the other two species.

As I write this and periodically check my yard for bird activity I see that the original two Pine siskins have been joined by at least a third.