On September 20, 2021, I was about halfway through a rare at-home margarita, watching the 5:30pm national news with dinner pending when I received a phone call from neighbors.  It seems that they were watching a large owl chase an Eastern Gray squirrel around a tree trunk in the Cap Sante wetland and they wanted me to come down to watch and try to photograph the owl.  I was reluctant because of the aforementioned factors and I had just spent a couple of frustrating hours in the yard unsuccessfully waiting to photograph some interesting birds that I had hoped might happen by.  Added to my reluctance was the fact that the light was fading and conditions didn’t lend themselves to quality photography.  (Back to the owl situation in a minute.)  

On 9/19 I had a brief glimpse (and gotten a couple of bad photographs for records purposes) of our first Golden-crowned kinglet of the fall/winter season. I made several trips to monitor the yard on 9/20 and on almost every one there was initially a kinglet in the yard, but it never presented an opportunity for photographs.  (On my last trip out there were two in the yard… which quickly disappeared once I got settled.)  And sadly, for all the considerable time I spent in the yard only one bird (a Spotted towhee) availed itself of the watercourse.  I photographed a few of the usual residents, including this male Anna’s hummingbird. 

At at one time three Northern flickers were dispersed by what has become a regular, generally unwelcome visitor, a large female/juvenile Cooper’s hawk (confirmed by a hawk expert via photographs by a hawk bander in Seattle).  

But back to the dilemma at hand… whether or not to leave the house and try to photograph the owl.  Under duress from the neighbor I grabbed my camera gear and drove to the wetland intending to use my vehicle as a blind.  When I arrived it wasn’t difficult to find the owl… it was extremely active, flying from perch to perch and apparently hunting.  I noted that the owl was a Barred owl.  We have occasionally had a Great Horned owl in the neighborhood but it is much rarer and this owl had no protruding ears. 

I followed the owl from tree to tree and snapped what photos I was able.  At one point I briefly lost sight of the owl as it flew close to the ground, and when it again popped up on a branch it was carrying what I am assuming was a rat!  I watched (and photographed) the owl as it flew to a couple of different perches and proceeded to eat the rat!  

After consuming the rat the owl continued its hunting activities, moving from perch to perch.  I finally lost the owl when it flew into some trees on the property of the friend who had initially called me.  I’m looking forward to photographing the owl in the coming weeks when I have better light and autumn has done its work and more of the leaves are off the trees.  

By early September the number of fall migrants arriving in the yard have slowed to a trickle… or even less. I am now spending as much as a couple of hours a day sitting in the yard with no sightings at all. I’ve at least temporarily solved my House sparrow problem. I’ve greatly reduced the number of feeders and the kinds of food I am putting out. This has discouraged sparrows but it has also resulted in other birds departing. The lack of food should not affect migrants because they don’t expect food and generally wouldn’t be attracted to the food (sunflower seed, peanuts and suet) that i have in my feeders. But… they might skip the yard because of the lack of bird activity. However they might also be put off by the 20-30 House sparrows that were almost continuously in the yard a week or so ago.

On September 6, 2021, I logged a single migrant… a female Wilson’s warbler. She was very accommodating, flitting around the watercourse for maybe about ten minutes. I have a variety of staging objects (bushes, sticks and rocks) located around the watercourse which gives birds inviting places to explore and perch. It gave me the opportunity to take 87 photos, and I’m almost (but not quite) embarrassed to say that I retained 27 after processing. Here’s my case as to why…

These first two photos are from several that I consider the best.

These next two photos are ones that I decided to retain even though I rated them among the lowest of those I retained.

By way of explanation regarding photo quality, I export all of these photos from Adobe Lightroom at 4MP, so what gets posted on this website doesn’t truly reflect the quality of the original photos. ALL of these photos are of a considerably reduced quality from those on my computer.

By August 31, 2021, our juvenile Western tanagers and Black-headed grosbeaks had apparently left the area and left me with an overwhelming population of House sparrows. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve temporarily stopped feeding birds and hope they return to whoever facilitated their propagation!

I went out in the yard late in the afternoon, with only about an hour of light left for photography. We hadn’t had any warblers in several days so I wasn’t optimistic that I would see any this afternoon. However, shortly after settling down I spied a female Wilson’s warbler in the yard but it never got in a position where I could get any good photos of it.

Over the next hour I had two Orange-crowned warbler visits, but neither provided an opportunity for any photographs. Finally, just before I had to give up due too lack of light, I had a final Orange-crowned warbler visit. This time the warbler came down to the area of the watercourse and I was able to obtain a couple of good photos.

On August 28, 2021, I had just begun my monitoring of the yard for interesting birds. I was suddenly aware of activity near our weather monitoring station and at the same time there was a mass exodus of birds from the yard. I couldn’t see the weather station very well and had to lean back and forth for a better view. What I saw was an accipiter sitting on top of our anemometer!

The accipiter was probably about 40 feet away and I didn’t have a clear view, so I watched without moving. The accipiter then flew to the brush pile we have in the yard. It could hear birds within the brush pile but there was no way it could get in… the brush pile’s basis is a cage constructed of 4″x4 welded wire and filled with branches… just for the purpose of creating a safe harbor for birds under such circumstances!

The accipiter worked its way across the top of the brush pile peering down where it could hear birds beneath it. As it moved to the north side of the brush pile about 15-20 birds took the opportunity to flee from the south side! I kept hoping for the opportunity for a clear photo while it was on one of my staging sticks, but it never came that close. I probably watched the accipiter for about 20 minutes, much, much longer than they usually spend in one location. I finally saw it fly out of sight but couldn’t be sure that it left the yard so I waited for another 15 minutes or so before giving up.

I’m assuming that this accipiter is a Cooper’s hawk but I’m far from an expert in identifying accipiters.

I’m having a great beginning to the fall migration! August 22 was a great day in the yard for both bird watching and photography. I had fall migrants passing through the yard almost all day and on several occasions had more than one species in the yard at a time. The day was made even better by an overcast that provided ideal photo conditions for the entire day.

My first visitor was a juvenile Western tanager, the first of several throughout the day.

Next up was a juvenile Northern flicker, hardly a migrant. We had a successful breeding season for the species and have had four or more in the yard at one time.

We next had an Orange-crowned warbler visit the yard. This is probably our most common warbler winter visitor, so there is some population that apparently remains in the area for the winter.

Next was a Black-headed grosbeak. The grosbeaks were rather scarce upon their arrival and during breeding activity but for the past month or so they have been visiting the yard on a daily basis… sometimes two at a time.

A non-migrant showed up in the yard next… a juvenile Red-winged blackbird. We normally have blackbirds only during the breeding season when the birds are nesting below us in the wastewater treatment pond marsh. They make quick trips up the hill to acquire a quick, dependable supply of food without having to leave their young unattended.

This male Downy woodpecker, also not a migrant, was waiting for an opportunity to access a suet block hanging above.

We are overrun with chickadees this summer. They apparently had a very successful breeding season in the area. This photo is of a Black-capped chickadee, but we also have a large number of Chestnut-backed chickadees.

We had both male and female Wilson’s warblers visit the yard. The following two photos are both of a male as told by the black cap on top of its head.

We are seeing fewer Rufous hummingbirds in the yard. The males are long gone and only a few females remain. This is a juvenile male Anna’s hummingbird that may spend the entire winter with us.

Our last migrant for the day was this female and/or juvenile Wilson’s warbler. Contrast it’s cap with the male pictured above.

I regret missing one other bird. In the top of one of our madrone trees was a small, active bird with a prominent white eye stripe. I suspect that it was some kind of vireo but very disappointingly, I was unable to obtain a photograph of it.