On November 3, 2023, I want on a birding/photographic excursion to Fir Island and environs. I wasn’t hopeful for a good outing as I had toured the Samish Flats earlier in the week (11/1/2023) with only the following photos of a Red-tailed hawk to show for my efforts.

I was on Downey Road on my way to Fir Island when a bird flew in front of me and dived into the grass adjacent to a farm field beside the road. I backed up and scanned the roadside carefully and spotted this bird frozen by a tuft of grass…

This alone made my entire trip worthwhile… a Wilson’s snipe, formerly a Common snipe and apparently slated to be renamed yet again next year. (I may have lived too long when a bird species acquires three names in my lifetime!) While I do have a few other photos of this species, snipes are not easy to come by!

I was not yet to Fir Island when I encountered this pair of Bald eagles surveying a group of swans in a farm field…

Once on Fir Island I encountered this pre-adult Bald eagle which I watched dine on a dead waterfowl…

At the Hayton F&W Access I encountered five Bald eagles, two of which were these pre-adults in the top of a tree…

I returned to the Bald eagle which had been dining on the waterfowl in the farm field to find that it had moved to the top of a power pole and I took this parting photograph…

This post will cover a several-day period in mid-October.

On October 19, 2023, I photographed the two species of kinglet in the yard. The Ruby-crowned kinglet is the much rarer of the two in our yard, seen here in the Evergreen huckleberry bush adjacent to our watercourse.

The Golden-crowned kinglet is a much more frequent visitor… I’ve counted as many as three in the yard at the same time.

This, and another male Anna’s hummingbird have been hanging around the yard now for several days.

I photographed this Song sparrow on October 20, 2023.

This somewhat similar sparrow is a Fox sparrow, photographed October 22, 2023…

On October 21, 2023, I thought disaster had struck when I failed to download (or find) photos of a male Golden-crowned kinglet with its crown raised that I had taken during the day. It was a rare opportunity for photographing the bird with its crown raised. I eventually managed to find the photos…they turned out to be of much lower quality than I had anticipated.

In my efforts to find/recover the kinglet photos I discovered that I had taken over 10,000 photos with my Nikon D850 camera that I had purchased new in March of this year!

On October 22, 2023, we had a brief influx of Varied thrushes enter the yard. There were at least four in and around the yard at the same time. These were the first we had seen in a couple of weeks. These photos were all taken at some distance (30-40′) as the birds are quite wary, especially when they first arrive. (The first photo is of a female and the second photo is a male.)

And now back to kinglets. the next two photos are of the same male Golden-crowned kinglet on the same perch. Looking at the first photo you could easily assume that it is a female since there is no red/orange in the crown. But you would be wrong!

In this second photo you can see the reddish tinge that the male hides so effectively when not bathing, courting or alarmed.

And finally, a photo of a female House finch getting a drink of water. This isn’t the only species I’ve seen perform this feat! (Don’t try this yourself!)

October 11, 2023, was another great day for birding photography!

I began the day by photographing American robins eating madrone berries. For the past couple of weeks I had been attempting to photograph robins in the madrones. The madrone berries have been ripe and are very abundant, but it seemed all the birds in the trees were at least 30 feet off the ground making photography difficult. Yesterday I found some of the birds had descended to lower levels of the trees making photography much more attractive. So there are a few of the photos I was able to take…

I took a short break when the birds seemed to take a break and drove by the Cap Sante Marina on my way to get gas. I seldom forgo the opportunity to check the marina for waterfowl and did so on this day, but there was no discernible bird activity. A short time later, on the way back from my errand, I again drove by the marina and found that matters had changed significantly.

The first thing I noticed was a Common loon had arrived in the basin. It was not active and seemed content to just slowly drift around the yacht basin, but it was not as close as I would have liked.

As I photographed the loon I noticed a Great Blue heron successfully fishing along the shore…

As I stood watching the heron a female Belted kingfisher arrived, landing very near me. This may have been the closest I have ever been to one!

I returned to the neighborhood and photographed more robins, then later in the afternoon returned to the yard. While I was there this Ruby-crowned kinglet flew into a bush very near me and gave me a fleeting opportunity for a photo.

Finally, just as I was getting ready to call it a day, a Pacific wren emerged from the undergrowth and skittered around the yard. This is a very rare visitor to the yard and one very difficult to photograph due to its activity level.

Whew! It had been a long day… I had over 300 photos to process!

October 10, 2023, another good day for photography and another productive day in the yard!

I was rather surprised to see this (presumably Audubon female) Yellow-rumped warbler enter the yard shortly after I went outside. I think it may have been about the third day in a row that I’ve had one visit. This time the warbler used many of my staging objects which gave me excellent opportunities for the 36 photos of the bird i was able to take.

As I sat surveying the yard this Fox Sparrow popped out from under the huckleberry bush located adjacent to the watercourse. This is our first Fox sparrow of the season and completes the list of sparrows we expect to see over the winter. (See list below.)

Dark-eyed Oregon juncos have begun filling the yard and will soon become our most numerous winter bird. The first bird pictured is probably a female and the second bird is a male.

In my prior post I mentioned that I had seen, but been unable to photograph, a female Varied thrush that had visited the yard several times in the past week or so. On 10/9 I was more successful! This one is perched directly above our watercourse.

And now for the list of (eight) sparrow species that are either here now or have visited this fall:

• Spotted towhee
• Dark-eyed Oregon junco
• House sparrow
• White-crowned sparrow
• Golden-crowned sparrow
• Song sparrow
• Fox Sparrow
• White-throated sparrow

All except the White-throated sparrow are in current residence. If you are interested in spending some time in our yard watching birds let me know.

Finally… remember there’s always a “finally”… here’s my companion (a native Townsend’s chipmunk) that supplies photographic opportunities when the birding gets slow. I thought we had parted ways for hibernation about a week ago but apparently not quite yet. Since we’re such close friends, he/she works cheaply… the payment for sitting fees are peanuts! (Pun intended!)

Yet another afternoon of yard birding. I began my day photographing this Ruby-crowned kinglet which came to our watercourse.

We have an almost continuous presence of kinglets in the yard, but most are Golden-crowned kinglets.

These photos offer a good opportunity for contrast between the two species. It’s very difficult differentiating the males from the females i both species as the males are so adept at concealing their red crests. My attention was drawn to this male when it became upset with another bird in the watercourse and raised its red crest. I try to label my photographs as to sex, but I’ve decided if I can’t see any red that I can’t assume the bird is a female, so I just leave off the sex label. If you look closely at the (RCKI) kinglet above you can see that it is a male.

We have two Song sparrows that frequent the yard but this season we are still waiting for our first Fox sparrow, which closely resembles the Song sparrow.

This is a male House finch, a species that is usually here almost constantly but disappeared for a few brief periods in the last couple of months. The color intensity on the males varies considerably… this one is relatively pale.

We had 2-3 American goldfinches visit the yard on this day, a relatively rare bird in our yard during the winter season. Judging by the color of the wing bars, I’m guessing that this is a first year female.

I’ve counted as many as three Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard so far this season but I suspect there are probably several more on the fringes.

We had our first Varied thrush in our yard on or about October 3, but try as I might I was unable to obtain a photo that day despite 3-4 visits. It took me almost a week to obtain this photo of a male taken on October 8, 2023. We now have both a male and female visiting the yard several times a day, but I have been unable to photograph the female. These birds can be extremely wary when they first arrive but things usually settle down after they’ve been here awhile.