Port Orchard, July 3rd 2011

Another dawn and another trek around the neighborhood. A lot of Song Sparrows were flitting about and I even spotted a couple of juveniles.



Nearby, I noticed a nest hanging in the branches. I have been unable to figure out what species it belongs to. Anyone?



I saw a couple of small birds taking off across the street and went over to investigate. A neighbor was tending the yard and her dog ran over to play with me. I hoped it would scare off the birds but it stayed right next to me as I looked for them and got a couple shots. They were nice adult Dark-eyed Juncos of the Oregon sub-species.



Last night I heard a strange song as we returned to the house. It took me all night to get the sound sorted out. It was an American Robin! When they come to Florida in the Winter they do not sing, they only make flight calls. Nice to actually hear their full voice. Many of them were feeding today including this one with the iconic pose with a tasty worm in its bill.



My main objective was to get up to the small park down the road to see what might be there. Hadn't been there in ages. I was detoured by some other birds but that will be the next post. When I got to the park (smaller than I remembered) there were loads of birds flying near the ground. In the low light I couldn't tell exactly what they were.



I tried to make them something new but all I can conclude is that they were a flock of juvenile Dark-eyed Juncos. Juncos are the only birds with white outer tail feathers that I can find and the good folks at Tweeters birding forum confirm it.



Back at the house, Spotted Towhees were creeping through the shadows.



The males were zipping by all over the place, calling and feeding. This female stayed in place and preened for a while as I tried to get a good shot. It was so dark under the trees that this was the best I could do.



Time to put the camera down for a few minutes but not before I took this shot of a small yellow flower in the neighborhood. Still trying to find out what it is.



I love this part of the country. Finding the birds in the dense canopy is a challenge but that is part of the fun. Now we have to head off to Bainbridge Island for the family reunion.

Spotted Towhee

Banding Eastern Towhees here is so common it gets slightly boring after a while. Might not top the Catbird numbers during migration but there are days we don't bother taking a picture of Towhees for the banding website.

Still, Towhees were on my target list for the Northwest because they have a different version. The Spotted Towhee. Looks a lot like an Eastern Towhee...but with spots. We humans are so inventive, eh?

I actually found the first Spotted Towhee on the first morning of the trip but since it was at dawn there was almost no light to shot in. Most other finds were in and out of bushes so quickly that there was no time.

Then, on our way back down the trails at Nisqually, my wife found a bird that appeared along the river's edge. She stopped to get a shot and I proceeded to do the same. Our best view of the trip of the Towhee.



Very pretty bird. One other difference from the western birds and our eastern species is that ours usually have more orange of 'straw' colored eyes. I have seen only one red eyed Eastern Towhee out at Wekiva during banding.

You can compare the Spotted Towhee to the Eastern Towhee by visiting the Towhee page of my photo web site.