These are all birds I’ve seen or heard in within a one-mile radius of home. The only one I’ve heard but not seen is the Great Horned Owl. He sometimes sits in a tree outside my bedroom window at night and I can hear him hooting. The most recent additions to my patio area are the Lesser Goldfinch, Bushtit, and Townsend’s Warbler. I don’t have good photos of all of these mainly because sightings are so rare (like the Warblers and Woodpeckers), but also because they’re so flighty (Warblers), or they’re so ubiquitous (Crows and Robins) I don’t see the point. I also don’t have the proper equipment to get good photos of birds. I have a DSLR and 70-300mm lens, but it’s not f/2.8 all the way through. A proper wildlife lens would cost about as much as a good used car, and since I’ve switched from semi-pro to occasional hobbyist, there’s no way I’m spending that much, especially during a pandemic. My focus right now is socking money away into savings.
Those Goldfinches are going to eat me out of house and home, holy crap. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from staying home all year, it’s that fall is the best time to have a bird feeder out. But just a feeder doesn’t cut it because there are species that are strictly ground feeders. Also suet in a cage hanging somewhere, because the Nuthatches, Warblers, Woodpeckers, and Bushtits love the suet. And a hummingbird feeder. The Anna’s Hummingbird is a year-round resident. And peanuts in the shell somewhere where the Jays can get them. Cover those four areas, and ALL the birds will come. My area is suburban, in a condo complex, and a tiny, fenced-in area, but if the food is here, they will come. And boy do they! The Goldfinches have taken over the feeder in such a way that I think I’ll either need to get another one or just throw stuff on the ground for the Chickadees and Nuthatches. But then I have squirrels to contend with.
I’ll post photos later.
- American Crow
- American Robin
- Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Song Sparrow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee
- European Starling
- Eurasian Dove
- Stellar’s Jay
- California Scrub Jay
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Red-breasted Sapsucker
- Great Blue Heron
- Mallard Duck
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Spotted Towhee
- Great Horned Owl
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Northern Flicker
- Bushtit
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Townsend’s Warbler