Whenever I find myself in Portland, as I did today on an early morning airport dropoff, I try to visit one of my old birding haunts. This morning, that meant a magical hour and a half, 22-species walk through Greenway Park in Beaverton. This cinnamon teal made me audibly gasp, showing up pretty as anything about 15 feet in front of me.

95) Cinnamon Teal
96) Black-headed Grosbeak
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I had a great few minutes with this beauty, considered rare but not unheard of in May in Lincoln County, OR. The little yellow eyebrow patch is a great field mark and made him look very dapper among the brambles. That's a new one for the farm, the 57th species I've seen there.

94) White-throated Sparrow
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I'm really tired of waiting for the decolonized new common names for North American birds. It was supposed to happen years ago, and I have a suspicion that a few old men are holding it back. Like everything else. Anyway, nice to see what should be called a Black-capped Yellow Warbler. And I don't rank birds, but if I did, waxwings would be top ten.

91) Cedar Waxwing
92) Band-tailed Pigeon
93) Wilson's Warbler
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This shouldn't be a rare sight, but it's starting to be. These beauties, with that strong cardinal bill, are one of the fastest declining songbirds in North America. It was great to see two today, and see reports of many more around town. Stick around. Make babies.

90) Evening Grosbeak
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I'm pretty sure I've heard them already, but got my first good look of the year at this classic American farm bird. Incidentally, when I started typing its name, my phone tried to autocorrect to "Brown-hearted" and I have questions.

89) Brown-headed Cowbird
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Another one that I really thought I'd already counted this year, but apparently not. Always happy to see these stripey boys with their trademark whistling calls and the most misleading name in all of birddom. An old coworker of mine once drew a comic of them flying straight through deer like arrows.

88) Killdeer
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Morning was the puffin time. Alcid paradise at Haystack Rock this morning.

86) Tufted Puffin
87) Pigeon Guillemot
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Farthest north I've gone on the coast this year (Haystack Rock) and sadly no puffins today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. But I did see these beauties. But the real treat was the rock itself.

84) Common Murre
85) Pelagic Cormorant
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Big day at Finley yesterday, my first full day of the year at our fantastic local wildlife refuge. It's a gem, as are so many of our public lands. Two big surprises on the day: I didn't think the pelicans were back for the season, and how HOW did I not have any coots yet? I could have sworn. But I have to trust the app and this thread. They say it's new, it's new.

78) American Wigeon
79) Ring-necked Duck
80) American Coot
81) American White Pelican
82) Hutton's Vireo
83) Marsh Wren
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It remains very finchy out. A day after I got one common goldfinch species confirmed, I get the other. There are also purples about, but I want to get an actual look before I count them.

77) Lesser Goldfinch
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