Before I get to photos, we have had a couple of noteworthy events, neither of which I was able to document in photos.  The first event was the annual arrival of Turkey vultures.  We saw two sail below our house on the very windy morning of March 11, 2024, as we were eating breakfast.  

The next day (March 12) we saw our first Rufous hummingbird, a female.  This arrival is right on time as the Red currents are just beginning to bloom.  

Another significant arrival, from hibernation, occurred March 10 when I saw one of our Townsend’s chipmunks scurry across the rocks in our watercourse.  It took full advantage of me and had a nice meal of peanuts.  Last year we had as many as four in the yard at one time and when the birding was slow they provided a little diversion for my photography.  

In other birding news, I was confused about this first-year White-crowned sparrow‘s identity (photographed March 10) until another arrived the following day.  I first thought I had a leucistic bird but later thought the bird was some sort of hybrid, but when another showed up the following day I realized that the sparrows’ crowns apparently don’t morph into adult plumage as I might expect.  

This finch had so much red on it I thought it might be a Purple finch instead of the more common House finch, but I’m probably not going to be able to make a determination from the photos I obtained.  If you want to weigh in on it let me know!  

And a few other recent visitors… 

A female Anna’s hummingbird taking what had to be a very cold bath on March 11, 2024…

A Red-breasted nuthatch sampling the cold water on the same day… 

And one of our recently arrived Pine siskins…

On March 11, 2024, I went for my morning walk in Washington Park. I encountered the same leucistic Song sparrow that I had first seen in the park a year or two previously. The bird has a prominent white patch on its forehead which appears much like a headlight. 

I had originally seen the bird on the loop road in the park but after not having seen the bird for several months I discovered this past month that the bird had moved several hundred yards from a heavily forested environment to a more open, and for me, accessible, environment. On this morning the sparrow readily came to a small amount of sunflower seed I put out and I was able to photograph the bird with my iPhone. 

I had made considerable efforts in the past to obtain quality photos of the bird, but it had consistently avoided me with its change of location and shyness. But on this day the bird’s location and behavior gave me renewed hope that I might be able to obtain some quality photographs. 

I retuned to the park in the early afternoon and with a little “pishing” and some ‘habitat enhancer’ I managed to reacquire the bird, although it was much more elusive than it had been early that morning. After a little frustration with the bird’s initial behavior I finally got the opportunity for some quality photos with my Nikon D850 and Nikkor 500mm f5.6 lens. 

I spend a lot of time watching and photographing birds and, since most birds aren’t readily identifiable as individuals, I seldom have the opportunity to track them from one year to the next. This bird, by virtue of its leucitism, is different. I get a lot of satisfaction in knowing that this bird has survived (this factor alone can be difficult for leucistic birds) and that I have been able to ascertain its location from year to year. 

March 6, 2024… another cold afternoon in the yard but another rewarding day for bird photography. The sun was out but the temperature was in the low 40’s. My hands get really cold but it’s difficult to protect them since they need to be available for photography on short notice. 

There were no new visitors on this day but plenty of opportunities for a photographer, including some of our rarer visitors. 

A pair of recently arrived Pine siskins spied some sunflower seed I had placed on a rock within about three feet of me and flew down to eat… twice!  This was far too close for my 500mm lens so I filmed them with my iPhone!  (The photo below is not an iPhone photo.)

I had the usual heavy traffic of chickadees, Dark-eyed Oregon juncos and Golden-crowned sparrows, plus other usual visitors. 

Our Bewick’s wren, a fairly rare visitor until it discovered the suet feeder a few weeks ago, entered the yard a couple of times to access our inverted suet feeder and I obtained several good photos. 

What got me into the yard in the first place, and kept me there in the cold, was a male Varied thrush that I kept seeing around the periphery of the yard. After well over an hour of waiting, my time in the cold was rewarded when the thrush approached and entered the nearest photographable water feature. I was able to take a multitude of photos of the bird at ‘point-blank’ range.  These birds will soon be heading back up to the mountains for the breeding season.

We’re still waiting for our first Rufous hummingbird to arrive. 

We’ll be winding down with our winter visitors in the next couple of months and looking forward to greeting our spring visitors.  Rufous hummingbirds should be arriving in the yard in the next couple of weeks.  In the first few days of March I’ve seen a Bald eagle and pair of Common ravens transporting nesting materials in the neighborhood.  

After several months of absence from the yard, we had at least two Pine siskins visit the yard on February 24, 2024.  I’ve observed them off and on since.  In some past years the siskins have been our most numerous visitors at times, but that hasn’t happened for several years now.  The siskins seem to come and go, sometimes with absences of several months at a time.  

We had two White-crowned sparrows visit the yard for one day (February 27, 2024).  One was an adult and the other apparently a first winter bird.  They had no apparent interaction.  This species is usually in the greater area year-round but we generally see a pair in the yard only during the mating season, and the pair that usually frequents our yard in the spring and summer quite often have their breeding efforts parasitized by Brown-headed cowbirds.    

We have had only infrequent visits recently by a single male Varied thrush, but on one occasion late in February we briefly had two in the yard.  

Also in mid-to-late February we had a Bewick’s wren visiting both our inverted suet feeder and a peanut feeder, an unusual occurrence for a bird that is primarily an insect easter.  

In early March I looked out our kitchen window to see three Anna’s hummingbirds briefly sitting on one of our hummingbird feeders at the same time!  

I’m always saddened and surprised by the handicaps I observe in some of our visitors.  On the injured reserve list… 

In late February we are still hosting the male Spotted towhee with the deformed (crossed) beak that I believe was the product of last year’s mating season.  

We have a male Dark-eyed Oregon junco with a lame right leg, and I recently spotted a female bird of the same species with a lame left leg. 

And I recently observed a Bushtit with a single leg hanging from our inverted suet feeder.  

On the afternoon of March 4, 2024, my wife went waking with a friend while I settled down for a nap to make up for a sleep deficit caused by our cat at 2am. I was just dropping off to sleep when my wife called and said there was a loon at our local marina. I didn’t have much hope of getting really good photos but grabbed my camera and headed down to the marina. 

When I arrived I immediately saw a Common loon in winter plumage and it was somewhat closer to the nearest dock than I had expected. I sat in the car for a couple of minutes to try to determine in which direction the loon was headed. It appeared like it could be headed to the dock below me, so I quickly headed down to the dock. The loon had dived so I used the opportunity to scurry down and stand beside a large pole in an attempt to disguise my outline/presence. I was looking around for the loon when it surfaced behind and very near me with its back turned, giving me the opportunity to quickly adjust my aim and camera settings without startling it. 

I was able to take several photos before the loon dove again, and I correctly guessed where it might resurface, giving me another opportunity for closeup photos. It dove again and this time surfaced on the other side of the dock much farther away and in a larger body of water. I realized at that point that my time with the loon was over. 

So this first photo was actually one of my last, but it matched my expectation of what I expected to obtain upon my arrival at the marina. 

These are some of the photos that I never expected to get!