This was my first real trip to the coast this year, where I could actually sit and watch birds, and it was spectacular. Seaducks for days. The harleys in particular are a bird I don't see every year and haven't in the last few. Add in my first pelicans of the year and a lovely close look at a male crossbill, and it was all such a treat.
65) Western Gull
66) Harlequin Duck
67) Black Oystercatcher
68) Surf Scoter
69) Red Crossbill
70) Black Scoter
71) Brown Pelican
I spend most of my time watching birds in parks and wilder land, and that means I sometimes miss the ones that hang out in human spaces. These days, you're more likely to see these dudes in a big box store parking lot than their native wetlands and grasslands, but I'm glad I saw them on the farm, in the grass where they belong.
64) Brewer's Blackbird
#BirdsOf2026
Spring continues its approach, and the migration is speeding up. Today, at Ankeny Hill refuge, I spotted my first migrating hummingbird of the year, a great look at a male rufous. After a long flight on such tiny wings, I hope you have a good summer, little one.
63) Rufous Hummingbird
#BirdsOf2026 #oregon
Swallow season has arrived in western Oregon, and to me at least, it has come all at once. I usually see Trees at least a little before VGs, but today they both put on a show at Willamette Park and showed me all their butts and faces, so I could see the difference. Welcome to spring.
61) Tree Swallow
62) Violet-green Swallow
Introduced, but they count. It's not their fault that we brought them here, or that they happen to like it so much and do so well where we put them. The hoo-HOO-hoos have arrived.
60) Eurasian Collared-Dove
#BirdsOf2026
I saw my first vulture of the year today, often one of my favorite days of the year. My muse, my champion, the golden purifier, Cathartes aura. And I can't even enjoy it. I can't welcome this old friend back to my skies, because I am mourning those my government is killing and the many, many more who will die and be harmed because of it.
59) Turkey Vulture
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We pretty regularly get chickadees both -capped and -backed at the farm, but I can't ID the latter by song, so it always takes me a little longer. Gotcha.
58) Chestnut-backed Chickadee
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I know I've heard Phoebes before today, but I hadn't positively identified one until this great look this morning, perched close and singing at Starker Arts Park in Corvallis.
57) Black Phoebe
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Good little-bird day at the park today. Three sparrow species—song, golden-crowned and white-crowned—plus juncos, hummingbirds, chickadees, wren, etc. Probably a killdeer too, which would have been #57, but I wasn't quite sure enough to count it.
56) White-crowned Sparrow
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Today is the start of this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. I went to my local wetland and heard one of the few birds that this mediocre auditory birder can reliably count by sound, as two rails were calling at each other from opposite sides of the boardwalk.
Any eBird observations from now through Monday help scientists and managers more effectively protect birds for decades to come.
More info: https://www.birdcount.org/
55) Virginia Rail
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Ian Rose