Birds of the northwest

I saw a number of new birds this past two weeks. Some of course were familiar - robins, sparrows, crows, towhees - but some were not: western flickers, Steller's jays, acorn woodpecker. I saw some belted kingfishers on the Snohomish, but couldn't get an even half-way decent picture. Here are the ones I did manage to get.

In Washington - all of these were along the Snohomish River:

Here's a Rufous-sided (or Spotted) Towhee.

I'm pretty sure this is a Song sparrow.

These ducks are most likely mallards.

Here's a western flicker - a female Red-shafted flicker.


This one is, I believe, a female House finch.


And this one leaves you (and me!) in no doubt: a Bald eagle (even if the camera did focus on the leaves!).

In Oregon:
This gull is, I believe, a Western gull. It was on the coast, at Battle Rock.

And here's a crow, hunched against the mist in Depoe Bay.

In California:


This angry looking gull was at a rest stop, and had probably come from Lake Shasta. It's a Ring-billed gull.


I think this is a scrub jay: although its head looks too brown, that might be the lighting and it might just be a young bird.

This strutting fellow was at the same rest stop as the gulls - the two groups were in conflict over the shade and the scraps. He's clearly a blackbird; I think a Brewer's blackbird.

Here's a Acorn woodpecker, at the same rest stop.

This Steller's Jay is hanging out at the Lady Bird Johnson Redwood Grove, where signs accuse him of being (along with other corvids) "intelligent, opportunistic, and always looking out for an easy meal." It's a fair cop, I suppose, but who among us looks out for a hard meal?..

This Steller's Jay was at King's Beach, Lake Tahoe.


Another Tahoe resident was this little Anna's hummingbird. I like to never got a picture of her that wasn't just a blur.

And here's another flicker, this one also resident at Lake Tahoe.