Went for a sunset nature walk at the Tualatin River Nat'l Wildlife Refuge yesterday with a friend, and watched this hawk flying low above the sere meadow.
At the time I remarked to my friend that it must be a red-tail (I saw a flash of orange) but the flight pattern -- almost hovering near the top of the grass -- seemed really unusual. Well, that's because it was a Northern Harrier! A lifer raptor! I have to trust my 'that's weird' sense more! 😁
Purple martins! At the marsh
Carib Grackle
Two quick shots through thorns was all the Carib Grackle gave me.
The Steves
I’d never seen Eared Doves before, but they felt oddly familiar—like Mourning Doves.
Wires, Wings, and Watchers
Three new lifers—Eared Doves, Gray Kingbirds, and a Scaly-naped Pigeon—greeted me during a slow walk through the garden on Day One in St. Vincent.
https://islandinthenet.com/gray-kingbird-tyrannus-dominicensis/
We went twice this week to burned locales where the three-toed and black-backed woodpeckers have been seen recently, but while we heard the black-backed, we saw neither.
But today, just visiting a favorite spot, I got to see one of the other species left on the list! Birding doesn’t respond to determination: you just have to keep your eyes wide and love the birds you see!
NO mistake #LiferBird: another for my ambition of seeing every Oregon woodpecker! 
Williamson’s Sapsucker!!! I’m so happy and I got decent pics!
Birded in the pouring afternoon rain yesterday, for the first time in weeks (getting kittens has been keeping me busy!). Mostly saw the usual suspects, but as I was thinking it was dim enough I should go home, I saw a bird fly to a tree. “Probably the scrub jay I heard earlier," I thought, "but silhouetted who can say? I'll snap some photos to be sure. Wouldn't it be jolly if it were something COOL like a shrike or something?”
Please meet my very first Northern Shrike. 😳
Felicity Shoulders
Khürt Williams