On January 18, 2024 we had snow from about dawn to dusk. The temperature at our house vacillated between 32-33 degrees all day, but all the precipitation was snow. We ended the day with an accumulation of about 2-3″. I spent about an hour outside and ended with 167 photos, many of which were virtual duplicates. There were NO unusual birds… these were birds that are in the yard almost constantly.
Most of the birds in the yard were sparrows of one species or another, with the overwhelming number of birds being juncos. On to the photos…
Male and female Spotted towhees…
Male and female Dark-eyed (Oregon) juncos…
A Fox sparrow…
A Song sparrow…
A Golden-crowned sparrow…
A suet feeder featuring at least a dozen Bushtits and one Chestnut-sided chickadee…
An American robin, which gave me hope we might have a visit from a Varied thrush, but it didn’t happen,,,
And a surprise visitor that needs no introduction, especially in this neighborhood!
I spent another hour or two with my camera outside in subfreezing weather on the morning of January 16. The highlight of my time outside was a visit by a male Anna’s hummingbird that took a bath in the watercourse that still had substantial amounts of ice in it! There’s not much more to this story other than the photographs.
It appears the we may finally climb out of sub-freezing temperatures on Tuesday, January 16! All of the birdbaths in the yard have been frozen solid for several days now, but the moving weather in the watercourse along with a small heater have kept water running freely in our watercourse. This has been a huge attractant to the birds, but other than our usual residents we’ve had no interesting visitors. I have spent a few hours out in twenty-degree temperatures for some good photos of birds but am disappointed that there have been no really interesting visitors despite probably having one of the only sources of water within at least several hundred yards.
I’m going to digress a little here, but here is another of birding’s conundrums… how do Bushtits get their water? In my 20+ years of biting in the Pacific Northwest, I can never remember seeing a Bushtit, of which we have many, ever accessing any of our water features!
On to the photographs!
I’ll begin with our most interesting visitor, a male Varied thrush. We’ve had both a males and females visit the yard, but only sporadically and not at the same time. These birds’ habitat is generally the higher elevations of the Cascades, but when winter snow hides their food sources they migrate down to lower elevations.
I’ll next throw in a couple of birds that non-birders sometimes have difficulty telling apart… the Black-capped chickadee…
and the Chestnut-sided Chickadee.
This past fall/winter the chickadees and I have become much better friends. They are now eating out of my hand and also raiding my main peanut supply I keep on the chair tray beside me. On one of our cold days I had four visits to the end of my camera lens (!) and another visit to one of my gloved hands, with an exploratory peck at the end of my exposed thumb (apparently sometimes considered ‘the BIG peanut’!
Two birds I initially had difficulty telling apart when we first moved to the Pacific Northwest… the Song sparrow…
and the Fox sparrow, both species sometimes referred to as ‘LBBs’ (little brown birds). Part of the difficulty had to do with the fact that Song sparrows in Texas are considerably lighter in color, a characteristic that applies to some other species as well.
This Fox Sparrow is enjoying a bath on a pre-freezing but still very cold day…
This male House finch stoped by for a brief drink. We had a lot of House finches during the summer but they are now quite rare in the yard despite being considered year-round visitors.
I want to also mention this lame Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco which is a regular visitor. It doesn’t keep its stomach off the ground, has difficulty balancing when perching and skitters around the yard, but it can fly quite well. I try to see that it gets its share of the food I dole out.
Finally (remember, there is always a ‘finally’), a couple of visitors that need no introductions…
It’s been a disappointing fall/winter for bird photography thus far. I’ve had almost no surprises from relatively rare visitors. Almost all of my photography has been of birds that have visited the yard. On the few expeditions I’ve made further afield, I’ve been disappointed with my efforts versus my results. But I have managed some nice photos of some of my visitors and here are a few.
I’ll begin with this female Anna’s hummingbird which from time to time has tried to maintain dominance over one of our feeders.
This male came for a rare bath in water that couldn’t have been over 50 degrees!
One of two Song sparrows we have around the yard this winter.
I estimate we probably have at least ten Golden-crowned sparrows in and around the yard on a good day. The photo below is of what is probably a male and is the only photo in this post not taken in our yard.
This may be a female or a first-year male.
A Red-breasted nuthatch making a relatively rare visit to our watercourse for water.
This is a male Golden-crowned kinglet, although you can’t tell it’s a male by this photo… you’ll have to trust me`!
This is a Black-capped chickadee, but we also have many Chestnut-backed chickadees that visit the yard. This year I have both species that will eat from my hand!
And finally, one of our most prolific yard visitors, a male Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race).
This is probably either a female or a first-year male.
