Black-capped Chickadee

When I first started birding almost two years ago, I spent most of my time near my home in Wilsonville. I didn't know about the all the hot spots in the area and the variety of birds that could be found. I discovered Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge very early. It was only about a 15 minute drive from me and I saw a lot of birds there.
As I progressed, I began finding areas with more photography opportunities and more exotic birds. I grew a bit bored with TRNWR. Well, I had a little time on Sunday afternoon, so I decided to walk the trail to the observation deck. Along the way, as I passed through the Oak Savannah, I was surrounded by a flock of Western Bluebirds. Unfortunately, about that same time, several groups of people came walking through the area and the Bluebirds decided to move on.
A lone Chickadee stayed put however, and gave me one of my better opportunities to photograph this species in the wild (no feeder). It got me thinking a bit how the type of birds that I shoot has changed as my normal stooping grounds have evolved. I shoot less passeriformes now than I used to. Sunday afternoon was a nice change.

Lincoln's Sparrow

I got a late start yesterday morning (it was a long week at work after having been off for over two) so I decided to stay nearby and check out TRNWR. I don't get there very often anymore and I thought it might be nice to see if I could see the Emperor Goose and check it off for 2012.
I dipped on the goose, but I did see a couple of new refuge birds for me; a Lincoln's Sparrow and three Fox Sparrows. All were along the beginning of the trail before the small ponds.
In the young Oak trees planted just after the ponds were a few Western Bluebirds and in the distance from the observation deck was an Eurasian Wigeon.
It's fun being able to check off all the birds at the beginning of a new year. It can get pretty slow towards the end of a year. :-)

Bushtit

I started out today looking for the Bewick's subspecies of Tundra Swan seen at Coffee Lake yesterday. I drive past Coffee Lake on my way to work and have often thought this wetland had potential. Unfortunately the Tundra Swans were all towards the back of the lake so I couldn't get close enough to see if the Bewick's was still there. Maybe tomorrow.
From there I stopped at TRNWR. I haven't been there in months. Things were somewhat slow, but I did run into a small flock of Bushtits at the observation deck. The light was horrible, but I did get one interesting shot of one of the Bushtits as it just started to take off.

Mallard - Summer Molt?

My wife and I walked the perimeter of TRNWR this past Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, but other than a huge flock of Bushtits and a Cooper's Hawk, things were pretty slow. On the home stretch along the south canal, we came upon five Mallards. I believe they were all adult females as we had passed both a female with ducklings and a group juveniles further back.
They exhibited both interesting behavior and characteristics. Quite often one would start to flap its wings very fast, slapping the water and raising quite a raucous as seen above.

At other times they would completely dive under water for short periods instead of dabbling like a typical Mallard. I didn't get a picture of one diving, but you can see the splash aftermath of one that had just dove on the right side of the image above.

Then I noticed something else interesting, most of these birds were missing most of their primary and secondary feathers on their wings. As you can see above, the rump of this bird is not covered with its wing's primary feathers as you would typically see them.

I started taking pictures of any of the ducks that flapped it's wings in hopes of getting some good views of the condition of their feathers. The one above is missing most all of its wing feathers.

The duck above is also missing a lot of feathers, but you can see that some growing in.

Finally, there is this one. Its wings appear to be fairly filled out.
So why are there what appear to be adult Mallards without wing feathers? I had already read that many water fowl molt after breeding and for a while can be flightless. After doing a bit more research, I found that male Mallards molt shortly after breeding and take on plumage similar to a female called the eclipse phase. Females will molt a bit later after its ducklings have fledged. I believe this is the case with these birds.
I could not find any pictures on the web similar to these, so I suppose these could be juveniles that haven't fully feathered out, but since they seem to have adult plumage other than on their wings, I suspect that these are adults going through their summer molt.
I welcome comments that either agree or disagree. And don't forget to say why!

Bullock's Oriole - Nest

During the spring of 2010, I saw my first Bullock's Oriole. It was at TRNWR and I got some pretty good looks as it harvested spider nests off the visitor's center. It would gather and then fly off into the giant Oaks only to return a few minutes later. I saw it one more time at the very top of one of the Oaks a few weeks later.
Back on June 29th of this year, I saw both a female, like last year, and a male in the Oaks. They were very active and I noticed that they were focused on one area. After some careful observation, I finally found the nest they were tending. The lighting was difficult, the birds somewhat elusive and I was out of time so the pictures I got were just average. I returned a couple of days later and saw them again briefly, but was shut out of any pictures. What with all my travel, I never did get a chance to take advantage of this find, but I learned from one of the staff there that they have been nesting there for seven years now, so maybe I'll get another chance next year.
Anyway, notice the interesting variety of yarn and string woven in the nest.

Lesser Goldfinch - Fledgling Feeding

My wife and I took a stroll through TRNWR this evening to get out and enjoy the first day of Summer. During our walk I noticed a small yellowish bird flapping its wings rather vigorously in a nearby tree. It turned out to by a Lesser Goldfinch fledgling as only moments later an adult male swooped in and began feeding the youngster. The picture at the top doesn't illustrate it well, but the fledgling keep flapping it wings during most of the feeding.

Black-headed Grosbeak

Now if I could just get the Black-headed Grosbeaks to be as cooperative as the Song Sparrows I'd be a happy camper. :-)
I am having better luck this year than I did last year though. I had to work around the branches and fight the sky to get these shots at TRNWR last Saturday, but at least the bird was much lower in the tree than most I come across.
Very pretty birds.

Song Sparrow

As with last year at this time, Song Sparrows are providing themselves as excellent subjects. This one appears to be going through a molt.

Black-tailed Deer

It's been a while since I've seen a Black-tailed Deer at TRNWR. This one, as some are there, was pretty tolerant of me and never did flee as I passed by it.

European Starling - Nesting

I spend some time at TRNWR this morning. Not a great picture taking day, but I saw several birds. Sure does seem to be a good Spring for Warbling Vireos. Now if I could just get a good close up...
I stopped at the platform looking over the river as I usually do, when I noticed a small head peering out of a hole in a dead tree truck right along side the the platform. But, before I could get a good look at it, it ducked down into the hole. I waited patiently for a bit until it raised it's head again.
It was a young bird, but I wasn't sure what kind. Then another head popped up and soon they were calling out as a European Starling flew in. It sat in the branches above for a bit, then swooped down and quickly fed it's young before flying off again.

Eurasian Wigeon

I visited TRNWR for the first time this year. The water levels have risen, but the birds were scarce. Very few passeriformes, water fowl numbers were down, but the Western Screech-Owl was at its perch.
The refuge has cleaned up most of the mess created by the fallen tree on the lookout platform at the end of the trail. As water levels creep up, the water fowl viewing is closer. Today I saw three male Eurasian Wigeons with a single female from the platform.

Ring-necked Duck

There has been a female Ring-necked Duck in the canal along the road at RNWR auto tour for a few weeks. It's near marker 2. I took these pictures back on Dec 18 using the rented 600mm lens.
With any luck, it will eventually attract a male to the canal. I'd love to get a close up picture of a male. The image on the bottom was taken from the bird blind at TRNWR way back on April 10th using the 400mm rental. Not a bad photo, but the bright water washed the image out. I need to remember to borrow my son's polarizing lens to see how much it improves these types of lighting situations.

Nutria

I've been busy catching up on work, working on our church's budget and now I have a cold. :-(

I took these pictures of a Nutria from the bird blind at TRNWR back on Dec 18 with the rented 600mm lens. Not only does this lens have much more reach than my 70 - 300mm zoom, it also produces sharper images. My dear wife is starting to understand why I want to spend a ridiculous amount of money to get a lens like this!

Nutria are actually an invasive mammal brought here to Oregon from South American back in the 1930's to replace the Beaver when its numbers where diminishing from over trapping. They destroy a large amount of native plants and can damage ecosystems as they only consume about 10% of the plant, eating only the stems and leaving the foliage to die.

Ducks in Flight - Northern Pintail, American & Eurasian Wigeon

On Dec. 18th I was watching the ducks in the main pond off the overlook of the visitor center at TRNWR when a Bald Eagle swooped in and flushed many of the ducks. I took a few pictures of the ducks in flight and got this one of some Northern Pintails, American Wigeons and a Eurasian Wigeon. I thought it was an interesting mix in one picture.

American Coot

A couple of American Coot seen from the bird blind at TRNWR last Saturday morning.

Green-winged Teal

While the bird blind at TRNWR gives you a chance to get some close, undisturbed pictures of waterfowl and other birds, they can still be a fair distance off for my 300mm lens. So whenever I rent either the 400mm or 600mm lens, I try to spend some time in the blind.
Such was the case this past Saturday morning. The water level was back up and while the bird diversity wasn't as good as I've experienced, there were plenty of Green-winged Teal. I took quite a few shots and posted some of the better ones above. These are very pretty ducks and I realized when comparing them to a few Mallards that swam through that they are also rather small.
Other birds seen were Mallards, Gadwalls and American Coot in the main pond and Northern Shovelers and Northern Pintails off in the side pond. I also got a few nice shots of a Nutria.

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.

Pacific (Winter) Wren

I noticed a small bird just off to the side of the trail among some fallen branches and leaves today at TRNWR. I figured it was probably a wren as it was rather small and hiding under cover. So I waited patiently with my camera ready and sure enough, it eventually showed itself. It turned out to be a Pacific Wren, recently split from what was a Winter Wren.
Wrens are difficult to photograph, as are many small birds, since they are typically always on the move and their size requires you to be pretty close to get a descent shot. While not a perfect shot, I am happy to have gotten this opportunity.

Canada x Great White-fronted Goose Hybrid

Update:
It's been suggested that the hybrid is too large to be a cross with a Greater White-fronted Goose and is probably a cross with a domestic Graylag. Also, larger Canada Goose subspecies do not breed in the Arctic, the White-fronted's breeding area. Both are good arguments against a Greater White-fronted x Canada Goose cross.

Original Post:
Today I spent an hour during the late afternoon at TRNWR since it was such a nice sunny day. When I got there I stopped by the visitor center to check the water level and see if there was anything interesting in the rising ponds. There were several Canada Geese swimming in the pond at the time and since it is fair distance to the pond I just took a few shots and moved on to the trail.
Tonight while I was going through the the pictures I realized there was apparently a pretty obvious Canada x Greater White-fronted Goose hybrid among the Geese. The group in the image above is lead by a Greater White-fronted Goose. Following, surrounded by three Canada Geese, is the hybrid.
It has the body coloration of a Canada, but its neck is browner and more variable. The white cheek of its Canada influence is almost nearly disguised. To me the most telling characteristics is the pinkish, orange beak and the white feathers at the base of the beak. Both influenced by the Greater White-fronted genealogy.

Northern Flicker - Female

Low light and distance typically result in noisy images and these are no exception, but I really like this bird. The red under its tail jumps out more than most I see and its overall coloring is very pleasing.