Dark-eyed Junco

Another image taken on August 13 at Bayocean Spit. I enjoy the spit for its variety of birds, variety of terrain and lengthy hike (it's about 8 miles if you walk the whole periphery).

If I remember right, this was the only Dark-eyed Junco I saw that day and it stuck around long enough to get several shots of it. I had a rented 400mm f2.8 lens that day with a 1.7x teleconverter, so I was able to get a pretty clear shot. The sharpness of this lens is noticeably better than my 300mm f5.6 (and noticeably heavier; 12 lbs!).

Dark-eyed Junco - Slate-colored

While growing up in Minnesota, I remember one of the common birds in the winter was the Slated-colored Junco. They were fun to watch and looked great against the snow.
When I moved out to Oregon in the late 80's, it was a treat to see the Oregon Juncos. The peachy feathers on their sides and brown backs added color to the plain gray of the Slate-colored.
Now, having gotten serious about birding again, I learned that the two Junco varieties I am familiar with were merged together in 1973 as one species, the Dark-eyed Junco, along with three other variations; the White-winged, the Pink-sided and the Gray-headed.
I got to see some Slate-colored varieties during my last trip to Atlanta, but it wasn't until yesterday at TRNWR that I saw one out here in Oregon.

Molalla River State Park

For such a great weekend weather-wise, my birding experience was not very good. I don't usually post trip reports, but it seems appropriate based on my experience and the fact that I didn't take many pictures.
I started out on Saturday morning with a visit to Hayden Island to see if I could see some of the ducks that are still being reported there. When I left Wilsonville, it was sunny and mild, but by the time I got to Hayden Island it was cloudy, cold and quite windy.

I first checked out the walkway along the condos where the Western Grebes, Scaups and Scoters have been, but I only found the Western Grebes. I counted about 25.I then went looking for Broughton Beach. I have never been. There have been reports of Horned Grebes and Common Goldeneyes, both of which would be new life birds for me. I did see a very large raft of Scaups, but they were well off shore and at the time I was in my car trying to find a place to park. When I finally did find the small parking lot I ended up seeing very little and the cold wind soon got the better of me. Due to limited time, I eventually decided to give up and go home. Of course by the time I got home the sun was back out. :-(

Today, I decided to try birding Molalla River State Park. I had forgotten that it existed and is only about 15 minutes from my house. The birding wasn't great, but that may be because I didn't get out there until about 2:30. I did get a few decent photos, but nothing to write home about.

There were a few Golden-crowned Sparrows.

Several Dark-eyed Juncos.

A male American Kestrel.

Even though there were many signs stating that dogs must be on leash, there were lots of dogs roaming free. At one point a woman with her off-leash German Shepard started freaking out when her dog started running to another woman's off-leash Rottweiler. Things got a little tense, but they eventually parted way.One dog chased this Squirrel up a tree.

Dark-eyed Junco

Yesterday morning I dropped my daughter off at the Portland Japanese Gardens for a writing workshop. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try walking some of the trails at the Hoyt Arboretum why I waited since it was close by.
It's a very pretty place and the signs identifying the trees make for an interesting walk. However, the birds were fairly scarce. I suppose part of it is the time of year, but I can't help think some of it has to do with the fact that the trails seem to be a favorite of joggers. While I am all for exercise and for people getting out into nature, it does erk me a little when people use nature trails as personal tracks. It just scares the birds and disrupts the tranquility.
Oh well, I did get a great shot of a Dark-eyed Junco in the Winter Garden. I was there by myself for a while and this Junco was scavenging for seeds in the garden.