Short Birding Outing at South Dyke Trail

Originally I had many ideas of places to go to test out my new lens, e.g. Reifel, Bloedel Conservatory, etc. But in the end, after waking up late, sorting out all the photos, and writing yesterday's blog, it was pretty late in the afternoon, so I just biked to South Dyke hoping to see some wildlife along the way.

While walking my bike in the "dog park" I heard many birds and came to several trees with bird feeders. I quickly took my camera out and snapped away!

Most of the birds were House Sparrows, Downy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Bushtits and several others that I don't know by sound.

The Downys were really focused in their tasks of finding the insects underneath the bark (and sometimes resorting to the bird feeder) and one was on the branch less than 1-m above my head, which made taking photographs very close when they are that close.


Many sparrows perching and looking at me and the ground - deciding if I am dangerous enough to risk flying the fallen seeds on the ground.


Chestnut-backed Chickadee! Lifer! I didn't realize it was a Chestnut-backed until I came back home and looked at the photos. What a pleasant surprise!

1-2-3...

Jump!

Time to go to Finn Slough then back home and make dinner...but not before I spotted this small Sharp-shinned Hawk!

An awesome bird to end a short outing!

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