Ian RoseMy 2025 bird list starts appropriately slow and relaxed for this January 1st morning, with a five minute, four species feeder watch.
1) American Crow
2) Black-capped Chickadee
3) Dark-eyed Junco
4) Yellow-rumped Warbler
The lazy day continues. No going to look at birds. Only sitting and letting birds come to me.
5) Anna's Hummingbird
I took a 15-minute walk down my street in the rain (it's only getting heavier later) and mostly just got wet, but I did manage to add one to my year list, a beautiful bird that will hopefully get its new, decolonized name this year. Where are we on that, AOS?
6) Steller's Jay
Another short walk, another few year birds.
Side note: It is wild to me that kestrel is not the state bird of any US state. For me, it's easily a top 10 US bird. There are too many repeats in the state birds, and one of those Cardinal or Meadowlark states should snatch up Falco sparverius.
7) Mallard
8) Northern Flicker
9) American Kestrel
10) California Scrub-Jay
It was a great morning of slow birding around the Timberhill area of #Corvallis, with most of my existing year list showing up, along with these six newcomers. The bluebird gave us a close look, and that was a treat on a rainy winter's day.
11) Bushtit
12) House Finch
13) Pine Siskin
14) Red-breasted Nuthatch
15) Downy Woodpecker
16) Western Bluebird
On a short walk while my laundry was washing, a starling. A beautiful flower can also be a noxious weed. It's not your fault someone brought you here because of a misguided Shakespeare obsession. We hate you because you thrived where we put you, which doesn't seem at all fair.
(EDIT: See comments on this post for a partial correction of the Shakespeare starling story. Always happy to be corrected or learn the complexities of a story.)
17) European Starling
Well, this just about does it for the easy winter backyard birds. For more, I'll have to either go to them or wait for spring migration. Good to see this common but lovely bird gorging on berries on my morning walk.
18) American Robin
The closest body of water to my front door is a little seasonal pond, dry in the summer but starting to fill up now with winter rain. It's sometimes a nice wood duck and merganser spot, but no ducks yet this year. It did give me a good look at my first heron of the year though, along with a pair of song sparrows foraging in a pile of sticks.
19) Great Blue Heron
20) Song Sparrow
What a gorgeous evening walk at Chip Ross Park here in Corvallis. Until last year, I had no idea I had such a world class Acorn Woodpecker habitat right in my backyard. It's fabulous, and makes me consider actually spending the money on a bird-worthy camera lens.
21) Red-tailed Hawk
22) Acorn Woodpecker
23) Brown Creeper
24) Spotted Towhee
Eugene Parnell@ianrosewrites I think I saw an acorn woodpecker in Bend a couple years ago. I looked up its range and it's kind of funny-- it just stops at the Columbia River. We don't have them up here in Washington. Lucky you!