Monday, November 30, 2015

Washington State - temperate rainforest

Mountains of Olympic National Park:

IMG_1140

IMG_1135

Temperate rainforest on the Pacific side of the Olympic peninsula:

IMG_1098

IMG_1091

IMG_1125

IMG_1122

IMG_1145

_MG_0898

White-crowned sparrow:
_MG_1004

Wilson's warbler:
_MG_1407

Willow Flycatcher:
_MG_2760 willow

Calliope hummingbird:
_MG_2721

Cedar Waxwings:
_MG_2692

Brown-headed cowbirds:
_MG_2422

Black-headed Grosbeak:
_MG_2002

Bullock's Oriole:
_MG_1897

Brown-headed cowbird chick. These birds are nest parasites - they place their eggs into the nests of other, usually smaller, birds, who then raise the large chicks often at the expense of their own. This chick was being fed by a song sparrow, whom it already outgrew.
_MG_2739

Song Sparrow:
_MG_2548

Cascade Mountains as seen from the commuter plane:
IMG_1175

IMG_1186

IMG_1164

Mount Rainier in the distance:
IMG_1211

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Washington State: from Olympic National Park to Spokane

Views of the Olympic Park mountains:

IMG_1132

_MG_1552

Northwestern Pacific beach.
_MG_1312

Mountain flowers.
_MG_1556

Mule deer at the Olympic peak.
_MG_1459

_MG_1492

_MG_1607

Tree Swallow peaking out of the tree.
_MG_1816

Dark-Eyed Junco - a type of sparrow, the only one with a white bill. Out east, we get them too - but they are a different color here.
_MG_1480

A Steller's Jay couple.
_MG_1965

Bald Eagle being harassed by a seagull.
_MG_1070

Osprey with fish.
_MG_2896

The bird got perhaps the mostly bluntly descriptive name ever - Yellow-Headed Blackbird.
_MG_3142

Black-Headed Grosbeak is a common seed-eater in the West.
_MG_2956

Song Sparrow in the marshes.
_MG_2780

Brown Cowbird - about to begin its mating dance.
_MG_2388

Rare rufous morph of the common Red-Tailed Hawk. Notice the dead mouse laid out for lunch.
_MG_2061

Eastern Kingbird. Even though it is called "Eastern", its range (which starts at the Atlantic seaboard) reaches almost to the Columbia River in Washington. Only the Cascade Mountains stop it from reaching the Pacific coast.
_MG_3345

Female Bullock's Oriole adding a splash of color to a rainy forest.
_MG_2074

Killdeer - letting me getting closer to it than ever before.
_MG_3448

A flycatcher (Western Wood-Peewee) on its favorite perch.
_MG_3353

Final bird! This guy was practicing landing maneuvers (with landing gear deployed and everything) in the middle of the desert between the Columbia River and Spokane. He must have made a dozen fake approaches, getting pretty low to the ground, but never actually landing.
_MG_2344