Got any bird pics?

[Gyrfalcon22]

Superb sequence, John!

Thanks Jim ! Manual focus so lucky the bird stayed at a pretty decent same focusing plane so a few were clear.

Almost acting more like a Northern harrier by hunting in more open habitat. I am more used to seeing Cooper's hawks stalking songbirds within forests. Whatever works, I guess.
Has your golden eagle returned?
Steve

The Cooper's was about to hit the blind corner of a hedge and b-line it for the songbird patch. A few more frames would have shown that he was in full hard bank at that corner -and taking on some serious G's.

A couple days earlier (below). This might be the same bird. This is in an area of thick fence row brush and corn stubble. Pheasant release site is close so as the Winter goes on and the pheasant weaken this will be more the Cooper's speed of prey.

No golden yet. He has a penchant for first showing up from about Nov 15th to the 19th the past three years. Mid-Nov is when we will get a good idea about a few possible Winter migrants. Shrikes, etc.. No swans yet but we should be close. Rough-legs showing up north so eyes out for those. Ofcourse, we have the window now opening for Snowy Owls. Fingers crossed !

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Beautiful shots as usual!

I hope it catches enough birds to make it through the winter. I remember reading somewhere that more than 70% of the immature accipiters don’t catch enough to avoid starvation their first year.

 

[Cabezon]

Westport Area, 2024 October 29. Well, last week was a classic PNW winter week – rain, rain, and more rain. But there was a window of sun forecast for Tuesday and I took advantage of it to do the Westport Loop: Tokeland and the Westport Marina (skipped Bottle Beach this time). The vanguards of the usual winter bird assemblage have arrived at both locations.
As I walked down to the outer floating dock at Tokeland, I spied a common loon on the inside of the dock. As soon as it saw me, it dove under the dock to the open water side. Initially, I was concerned that it would be wary of me, but after a while it started to swim/dive toward my position. We started playing “peak-aboo” where I tried to keep my silhouette adjacent to a pier piling. And I played “red light – green light” where as soon as the loon dove, I moved to a closer piling to the bird’s anticipated location. Sometimes, it works…. It did today.


While most of the western grebes were content to simply bob in open water, a few individuals were feeling peckish. Several surfaced within camera range. In one, the arrangement of feathers on its head is very modern style: short sides and tall on top.
But in another picture, those head feathers have more a slicked-back 1950’s vibe.

A red-necked grebe was diving just off the elevated bridge to the outer breakwater at Westport.

It came up from one dive with a gunnel wrapped in Ulva.

While the combination of seaweed and fish may be a delicacy in Japan, this red-necked grebe wasn’t interested in any salad. It beat the combo multiple time on the surface to separate them but that wasn’t working. It finally flung the combo from its bill and that separated fish from alga. After recapturing the fish, its problems weren’t over as the fish wrapped itself around the grebe’s bill.

But this was just a temporary respite for the fish and the grebe soon downed the gunnel like linguini.
While we see common murre quite commonly as we head offshore with Nick to find albacore, I had never seen a common murre in the marina basin itself. So, I was surprised to find one just off Dock 20. It then started to swim its way down to the entrance into the marina. Along the way, it preened for a while and stretched its wings.



And then it dove and disappeared around the edge of the breakwater.
A pelagic cormorant sitting on the top of a piling posed for me.

From the closeup you can see that it had been doing some preening.

While the dominant large gull species in most of the Salish Sea is the glaucous-winged gull,

herring gulls are also common along the coast.

One of the easiest ways of distinguishing these two species is that a glaucous-winged gull will have a light gray back and wing tips while a herring gulls will have a light gray back but black wing tips. Adults of both species have a red spot near the tip of the lower bill but in herring gulls, the red spot may also include some black pigment. These two species can interbreed and produce hybrids. As we all know, gulls are gluttons. They will try to swallow anything, like this juvenile glaucous-winged gull in the slow process of swallowing a large ocher starfish.

There were a few wading birds at Tokeland but not at Westport as it was high tide when I arrived. A lonely willet was foraging along the shoreline inside the Tokeland Marina.

Later, it joined a big flock of 20ish willets with a few black-bellied plovers that were resting on a finger of salt marsh by the campground. Tokeland is one of the more reliable locations to find willets in coastal Washington.

Later, a flock of 40ish marbled godwits squeezed their way among the willets and plovers.


Steve

 

[Jim F.]

Thanks!

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Great post as always, @Cabezon Steve !

 

[BriGuy]

Westport Area, 2024 October 29. Well, last week was a classic PNW winter week – rain, rain, and more rain. But there was a window of sun forecast for Tuesday and I took advantage of it to do the Westport Loop: Tokeland and the Westport Marina (skipped Bottle Beach this time). The vanguards of the usual winter bird assemblage have arrived at both locations.
As I walked down to the outer floating dock at Tokeland, I spied a common loon on the inside of the dock. As soon as it saw me, it dove under the dock to the open water side. Initially, I was concerned that it would be wary of me, but after a while it started to swim/dive toward my position. We started playing “peak-aboo” where I tried to keep my silhouette adjacent to a pier piling. And I played “red light – green light” where as soon as the loon dove, I moved to a closer piling to the bird’s anticipated location. Sometimes, it works…. It did today.
View attachment 131877
View attachment 131878
While most of the western grebes were content to simply bob in open water, a few individuals were feeling peckish. Several surfaced within camera range. In one, the arrangement of feathers on its head is very modern style: short sides and tall on top.
View attachment 131879But in another picture, those head feathers have more a slicked-back 1950’s vibe.
View attachment 131880
A red-necked grebe was diving just off the elevated bridge to the outer breakwater at Westport.
View attachment 131881
It came up from one dive with a gunnel wrapped in Ulva.
View attachment 131882
While the combination of seaweed and fish may be a delicacy in Japan, this red-necked grebe wasn’t interested in any salad. It beat the combo multiple time on the surface to separate them but that wasn’t working. It finally flung the combo from its bill and that separated fish from alga. After recapturing the fish, its problems weren’t over as the fish wrapped itself around the grebe’s bill.
View attachment 131883
But this was just a temporary respite for the fish and the grebe soon downed the gunnel like linguini.
While we see common murre quite commonly as we head offshore with Nick to find albacore, I had never seen a common murre in the marina basin itself. So, I was surprised to find one just off Dock 20. It then started to swim its way down to the entrance into the marina. Along the way, it preened for a while and stretched its wings.
View attachment 131885
View attachment 131886
View attachment 131887
And then it dove and disappeared around the edge of the breakwater.
A pelagic cormorant sitting on the top of a piling posed for me.
View attachment 131888
From the closeup you can see that it had been doing some preening.
View attachment 131889
While the dominant large gull species in most of the Salish Sea is the glaucous-winged gull,
View attachment 131890
herring gulls are also common along the coast.
View attachment 131891
One of the easiest ways of distinguishing these two species is that a glaucous-winged gull will have a light gray back and wing tips while a herring gulls will have a light gray back but black wing tips. Adults of both species have a red spot near the tip of the lower bill but in herring gulls, the red spot may also include some black pigment. These two species can interbreed and produce hybrids. As we all know, gulls are gluttons. They will try to swallow anything, like this juvenile glaucous-winged gull in the slow process of swallowing a large ocher starfish.
View attachment 131892
There were a few wading birds at Tokeland but not at Westport as it was high tide when I arrived. A lonely willet was foraging along the shoreline inside the Tokeland Marina.
View attachment 131893
Later, it joined a big flock of 20ish willets with a few black-bellied plovers that were resting on a finger of salt marsh by the campground. Tokeland is one of the more reliable locations to find willets in coastal Washington.
View attachment 131894
Later, a flock of 40ish marbled godwits squeezed their way among the willets and plovers.
View attachment 131895
View attachment 131896
Steve

I like the lone "Where's Waldo" bird going against the flock in that last picture.

Great post as always.

 

[Wadin' Boot]

gloom!

 

[SKYKO]

Revealed after the leaf drop recently.

 

[JudyM]

Seeing the same in the treetops on the island across the river where I fish. Sometimes even an eagle flying overhead. Steelhead fishing starts after Thanksgiving. Watching the fish counts at Willamette Falls and the Clackamas.

 

[Scott Salzer]

I had a new heron rookery set up near my office..... until the eagles found it. Not a pretty sight.

All gone now.

 

[Kilchis]

The winter birds are filtering in. This week's storms and subsequent cold should bring more.

 

[SculpinSwinger]

Both of these are a stretch for being bird pics

Looking upstream at my fishing partner for the morning.


Bird of prey at rest.

 

[VAGABOND]

Changed up the recipe a bit and a couple of these guys started showing up.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, not as famous as Big Red but it seems they like mealworms.

 

[Cabezon]

A highlight from a recent visit to Ridgefield NWR was watching a great blue heron hunting by the side of the gravel road.

Normally, their targets are voles and other rodents. But a great blue heron won’t pass by any smaller morsels that it encounters while scanning the grass intently. This heron captured a late-season grasshopper as a snack.

Steve

 

[fkajwg]

Thanks.
That's a trick question as I pulled out my old DSLR Pentax K3iii and long telephoto lens for that original crossbill photo because I was feeling nostalgic and hadn't used that dinosaur in over a year. It required a tripod and patience. I was lucky to get that bird sitting long enough to focus, recompose and get the shot.

For the photo you reference, and the majority of my current wildife and bird photography, I moved on to a mirrorless system which is an absolute game changer. Since I emphasize bird photography, I went with a micro four thirds (MFT) sensor with the OM systems (formerly Olympus) OM-1 with a 150-400 TC F 4.5 lens.

I also shoot w the OM1.
I use the 300 f4, often w a 1.4x extender.

These are 35 mm field of view equivalents of 600 mm, or 840 mm.

I love the image stabilization.

Jay

 

[fkajwg]

When the winter crew of juncos, white crowned sparrows, house finches, robins, cedar waxwings, mourning doves and collared doves gathered at our place this fall, some red breasted nuthatches hung with them briefly. The last species was a new backyard bird for me. The tree is a linden, a prolific seed producer the waxwings feed in.

 

[fkajwg]

I’m happy to share the news that I have two images accepted in a show at the Larson Gallery in Yakima
Larson Gallery’s annual Central Washington Artists’ Exhibition is one of the longest running juried art exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest.
…features current artworks by artists living in ten Central Washington counties.

Opened nov 9.
Hangs through early December

Jay

 

[Jim F.]

Congrats!

 

[riseform]

Meet Pecker, our badass molting chicken

 

[Cabezon]

Meet Pecker, our badass molting chicken

Very punk styling...
Steve