Portland Birdwatching Experiences

We have started a flickr page as another way to share our photographs. An advantage of the flickr site is that it allows us to upload larger file photos. Please visit the site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngbirders/

March 2010 

Mindfulness practices are a definite boon to good health. Some of the more recent scientific studies show that being mindful is good for your immune system and good for your brain in terms of emotional health and creativity.  Birdwatching is an engrossing and fun way to bring more mindfulness into everyday life– all that is required is to look outside or go outside and be fully present looking to see what you might see. 

So many people rush through their days and miss the lovely white crowned sparrow that was singing on the lamp post mid day outside of our Safeway store. I stood for a minute and listened to that beautiful song and even commented to passersby who said “what birdsong?”

Yesterday I went outside in my back yard and saw two Flickers doing something I had never seen– bobbing their heads up and down at each other than then gently touching bills over and over for about 15 minutes. No vocalizing at all. Spring is coming! And soon those very same flickers will be drumming for mates and in fact you will hear loud sounds all around Cedar Mill, Oregon as they stake out their territory.

Another thing I saw in my own back yard when I bothered to really look was that many birds have already started to change into their breeding plumage. Feathers are not alive so to change colors birds have to lose one set and replace them with a new set– a process called molting. Different birds do this in varying ways. You might have noted for example the mottled European Starlings are starting to develop their glossy dark black breeding plumage and their yellow beak color. All this requires a lot of energy as they lose one set of feathers and grow in a new set. Our most striking example of changes in breeding plumage are the Mallard male ducks with their bright green heads in the spring and the Goldfinches who change our of their drab olive winter feathers to the typical incredibly bright yellow of the breeding male.  See the website gallery for examples of Goldfinches in summer/breeding plumage and winter plumage.

Really focusing on what you can see changes your walks and visions out of your window from the mundane to the very interesting and is probably good for your health. Take a careful and mindful look outside.

February 2010

Winter brings many birds to our area that we see only briefly. In the case of the Brant Goose seen in the accompanying picture , this goose settled in Cedar Mill on Saturday Jan 23 for about a one hour rest period before resuming flight back to breeding grounds in Alaska. The Brant is rarely seen in the Willamette Valley and in the 25 plus years I have been bird watching in Cedar Mill I have certainly never seen one. In fact I have never seen one anywhere, despite reports they are occasionally seen at the coast.  See the photo in the website gallary.

Over the past few weeks I have heard migrating Tundra Swans overhead and ran out to see them. Often they are low enough one can see the details of neck length and beak color! Other times winter birds come closer as in the swarms of Juncos mobbing my bird feeder in my yard or the Yellow Rumped Warblers flitting around the suet—they almost hover as if they were hummingbirds, but their large size gives them away as warblers. Soon they too will leave our area to go north to breed and feast on the millions of hatching insects in the Alaskan summers.

The key to seeing these fleeting migrants is to listen for new sounds and then look out! If you are lucky enough to be by a window or be outside that is a special treat for those who are observant. Soon in our area the summer birds will be back, making nests, singing for territory and eating all they can to get fat to make eggs and sit on them for a while! Spring really is coming from the chives bursting through my garden soil to the just appearing young dandelions in the grass to the migrating geese and swans!

December 2009

Many birds who breed in the northern parts of Canada and Alaska find our winters to be “balmy” even with the occasional weeks of very cold temperatures we have had in the past few winters. As I write this in mid December, the pond in the back of my yard in a wetlands area of Cedar Mill is just starting to become free of ice around the edges.
This makes winter an excellent time to see many birds that we won’t see in the spring or summer unless you too fly to Alaska! Last week in my pond I saw Gadwalls, Green-winged Teals and American Widgeons. All these however were eclipsed by the “hawk” show—due to the ice they could not hunt their usual rodents and snakes so they picked off gulls and small ducks that were stranded in the center of the pond. While this sounds difficult to see, in many ways it is part of the natural order.
The winter has also brought to Cedar Mill many small song birds that breed in Alaska. We now regularly see large flocks of Juncos, Golden Crowned sparrows and Yellow Rumped warblers at our feeders. The Bushtits have flocked back up as well after pairing off in the summer to breed, but in the fall they form large flocks which will “bomb” a suet feeder with up to 50 birds at a time—making for a squirming mass of birds on one feeder.
Several Goldfinches appear to be staying for the winter in flocks, usually they migrate in fall to warmer climates but this year there appear to be many who have decided to stay—possibly it was a good seed year in Cedar Mill? I have seen them eating out of the pods of my sweet gum tree—when I looked in a pod I found numerous small seeds resembling the nyger thistle that we can buy at stores to attract these birds. And to think that I imagined those hard pods only being a nuisance in my lawn!
The absolute favorite bird however that I have seen recently in my back yard has to be the Great Horned Owl who I hear at night but rarely see, I know there are two owls out there who hoot back and forth. I was fortunate enough to see one perch on a tree at dusk. The “ears” of his Great Horned head were obvious in the twilight even if I had not heard his call which identified the bird.
In the greater Portland area over the course of a year there have been about 270 birds identified. The exact number changes from year to year and with the climate change we are seeing more “unusual” birds that we generally don’t see here In our own back yards if we look we can see amazing variety through the seasons. From the large Great Blue Herons and Great Horned owls to the tiny Anna’s Hummingbirds who stay all winter (keep your feeder full and unfrozen!) we have almost all those birds if we just look outside.