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Armature Bird Watchers
I do not even remember how we got started I remember that when the power was out in the valley we would sit with binoculars at the window and watch birds search for food in our compost heap when it would snow. Later, when we would go to Mount Vernon, Washington in the spring for the Tulip Festival, we began to notice different birds and wonder what they were. I think it was at a gift shop in Mount Vernon that we bought our first birding book, Birds of the Pacific Northwest Mountains by Jan L. Wassink. We just seem to get more obsessed every year. Now we go birding, and if we happen to se something else, great! |
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Robe Valley in Washington State
We have seen an amazing variety of birds right in our own front yard. Of course there are the Stellar's Jays, Robins, Crows, and neighborhood chickens. But living in a mountain valley, close to a river, with both meadows and mixed forests we are privileged to see so much right from our office window. Here is a short list. Great Blue Heron (which my husband and his logger friends have always called a 'shy poke'), Canada Geese fly over the house, Mallards, Common Mergansers, Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles (there is a nest just up the road), American Kestrel, Ruffed Grouse (? maybe it was a blue), Snowy Owl, Rufus Hummingbird, Calliope Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpeckers, Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatch, the beautiful Varied Thrush, Red-winged Blackbird, the stunning Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch (!!), Rufus-sided Towhee, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco (daily).
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The Traveling List
This summer at Yellowstone we saw our first ever Mountain Bluebirds! We also saw Trumpeter Swans, White Pelicans and Ray saw his first Western Tanager. On the Oregon Cost we spotted our first Brown Pelicans near Gold Beach.
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