Thursday, June 10, 2010

Burrow's Bay Birding

Moving out of the yard for a little break, I spent a few hours at Burrow's Bay this morning and took the following photos:


Song sparrow...


Barn swallow...

California quail...



And an Orange-crowned warbler (thanks to BK for the identification confirmation!)...


Saturday, June 5, 2010

Fledglings

Since returning to the PacNW last week I've seen a lot of fledglings in the yard.  We've had Spotted towhees, Red-breasted nuthatches, Chestnut-backed chickadees and Downy woodpeckers.  I was working in the yard today when I noticed an unusual number of visitors to our inverted suet feeder (many with fledglings) so I retrieved my camera and took advantage of the situation.  Some of the photos I obtained are probably my best for some of the species. 

Later in the afternoon I created a California quail feeding area which I hope will help reduce predations by my recently acquired Rock pigeon gang. 




Thursday, June 3, 2010

Tis the Season

I just returned from Texas with photos of Painted buntings, Northern Cardinals, female Dark-backed goldfinches, White-eyed vireos, an Eastern phoebe and possibly another couple of birds I'm not remembering at this 'pre-processing' moment.  I originally created this post for Pacific Northwest birds but I'm currently considering expanding the offerings to other areas where I travel... but have yet to make that decision. 
However the Torch plants are now blooming in the local area and they are attracting hummingbirds, finches and occasionally some other birds.  I visited another area in the neighborhood and took the following photos  of female Rufous hummingbirds this morning.