I did look you up but I haven't looked at the posts just yet. I'll try to get to that soon. Have grandkids coming tomorrow. :-)

That sounds ambitious! ;-) I think I'd have better luck on the ground or around the yard (woodpeckers and sapsuckers are fun). ;-)

Have you photographed bald eagles at the Big Beef Bridge in Seabeck? I've not done it myself but know someone who goes out there regularly. Probably a good time is at lower tide... not certain.

Well... I already had a 70-200mm f/4 with an extender (taking it to 300mm). Not as far as a serious birder, but better than my usual. It appears to work on the Fuji with the adaptor... so I'll leave it on for awhile and see if I catch anything. :-)

:-D I do take them ... but to get really good ones I'd have to stop gardening and just sit and wait for the "good" photo (and get a better zoom lens). :-D

Yours look amazing, BTW. :-)


After posting that I looked at what you were using for your pictures and honestly, I probably have something comparable here. I got an adaptor for my Fuji and can play with some Canon zoom lenses and see if they work okay. It does involve some sitting and waiting outside though. Hard not to see something that needs doing in the garden. ;-)

You don't live that far from us. If you ever want to set up in one of the fields and see what you can capture, just private message me and I'll let you know how to get here. It's a pretty spot in its own right.

We have loads of birds here and if you stand outside and listen, you can pick up the sounds of multiple species during the spring and summer. I don't have a high-powered zoom lens or good quality tripod, but will sometimes try to capture shots from near the house ... deck or bird bath. I'd have to set up and intently watch to catch them in the fields and surrounds. I did manage a slightly blurred shot of the red-tailed hawk in the lower field last year. It's so large, my husband noticed it perched toward the top of an alder tree. The photo was nothing good enough to share, but one could recognize WHAT type of bird it was! ;-)

I don't put out feeders either. We have loads of flowers since I'm into gardening and hummingbirds are ever present during summertime (some, all year). They will fly right up to my face sometimes when I'm hand watering and check me out. ;-) If I were to have a feeder out, I'd fear it would just be a hawk feeding station. I actually got my hand struck by what I think was a Cooper's Hawk last fall. I was grooming yellowing leaves from a tall rhody above a bird bath. I'd been at it for awhile and while reaching up into the center, something struck my left hand with a vengeance... from fingertip to wrist. When I yelled out it exited out the back side of the bush and I didn't see it ... but there were several punctures in my garden glove. I'd liberated one of those out of the blueberry netting last summer. i sure hope it hadn't been picking off small birds when they'd come to bathe. :-( Sad thought.

We have a lot of juncos here all year ... more than I see chickadees. Also Rufous-Sided Towhees. Many types of woodpecker ... and sapsuckers... flickers. I think my favorite sightings during cherry season are those pretty Western Tanagers. So beautiful but rarely seen. I don't see one every year but that's when it's likely to happen.

I'll Google that.


P.S. - Came back to edit after downloading the app on my phone. Thanks for the heads up. :-)That will be handy to have. Looking down the list of "most likely" birds, we've seen about 3/4ths of those on this place over the years... not counting water birds I'd have to go down to the canal to see up close. We do get ducks in the pond next door but I don't know which kind, since I can't easily see them. I guess if I pay more attention with their calls later and use the app, it might tell me. :-)

During our earlier years here, we had livestock on the place and then we'd often see pheasants and quail. I don't hear them much these days. Barred owls are ever present in the nearby woods though and their night-time calls are common. Turkey vultures were on the list and we even had a visit from a couple of those one time when a deer died on the back portion of our property. :-/ Kind of creepy.

Hmm... we live on 5 acres ... almost four of them field with trees in the surrounding neighborhood... close to Hood Canal. I'll keep my eyes open ... have just not seen them. At least... not up near the yard (we're in the center with pastures on either side of a 3/4 to one acre yard space). We have a lot of birds of prey around us ... especially the last few years. I don't see as many robins in summer here as we once did. Larger songbirds are not as prevalent but we still see the smaller ones quite a bit. We've always had a ton of birds on this place. Makes it impossible to raise small fruits without netting and vigilance. :-P I've hoped fewer robins meant they were going to a safer place to nest. I think we had red-tailed hawks nesting in the lower field last year. There's a stand of alder down there, a couple of hemlocks and a windbreak along one road side with Douglas Firs.

I just realized you live CLOSE to me... so if you've seen them, maybe so! How long have you been seeing them and is it in your own yard or at one of the parks or reserves?

I've never seen one in my nearly 70 years of living in Western Washington ... I love birds and the males are quite distinctive. According to this source, one would be more likely to see them on the eastern side of our state.

http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/black-headed_grosbeak

Those are beautiful shots! I especially like the first. We don't have that bird in our neck of the woods.

Thank you for sharing! :-D

I did ... I find Dixieland music appealing. A favorite my folks had on an old Lawrence Welk album was one called, "Barnyard Blues." I was a little kid then so the "animal" sounds made me very happy. :-D

I LOVE "Lazy River." My dad played in a dance band on weekends (piano) and I cut my teeth on hearing him play old standards in our home.

I grew up listening to this guy ... my folks really enjoyed him. <3

I cast my vote with male Purple Finch...

Nope! Came back to change my mind. It looks like a closer match to the house finch. They get mixed up often.

I think the first and last are my favorites! <3

Thank you! :-)