There are not many birds I actively seek. I usually just take what presents itself to me. But, for quite a while now I have been lusting over finding a Northern Pygmy Owl. I have this thing for cute birds, and moreover, the Pygmy is diurnal, so I had a fighting chance of seeing one during daylight hours. I have spent entire days searching forests for this relatively rare bird. But, those many hours turned out to be just walks in the woods. Finally, my luck changed, but not in the way I expected. I was visiting my friend Kerry up in Skagit County in Washington State. We had planned a hike together and were not planning on birding. I only brought my camera along because I was going to bird on the way home. Just by chance, I noticed a lump on top of a tall dead tree snag on the edge of her property. I ran to my car and grabbed my camera. My first pictures were at a terrible sun angle, so I repositioned myself and got this shot: Pygmy Owl I was not ready to admit to myself that it was a Pygmy, but Kerry assured me that it was. He then flew down closer to the ground, flying right up to Kerry, and landed on a tree branch just 30 feet from her house:  Pygmy Owl It was clear that he had his sights on something, and within minutes he flew to the ground: Pygmy Owl Once on the ground, I had a tough time getting a good camera angle, but it was clear that he had caught something:  Pygmy Owl He made many attempts to fly with it, but it was too big. So, he made several short hops to move it along:  Pygmy Owl with rat This was when I finally got a good look at his prey and found that it was a sizeable rat. It probably weighed more than the bird did. After many attempts, he finally made it to a safe area under a tree to consume his reward.  Pygmy Owl eating a rat I am so grateful that Kerry very intentionally keeps her yard as a pasture, not manicured. It was because of this that she was able to provide prey for these wonderful owls. Thank you Kerry for providing me and the owl with a most wonderful capture. 

Earlier this summer my friends Soo and Laurie and I hired Khanh Tran to guide us to find birds in Washington and Oregon. It was an amazingly productive trip. Khanh is an excellent guide and I would highly recommend him to anyone. 

The first target species was the Spotted Owl. Being a threatened bird, I was very excited about seeing this owl. Khanh's advance legwork paid off and we drove back roads for about an hour. We parked on a logging road and within minutes had sight of the male sitting near the road. He ultimately flew further into the forest to be nearer to his nest, but we got some great views. Good thing that owls sit so still, because the light was so low I had to use 1/10th of a second shutter speed. Here are two of my favorites of the Spotted Owl: The next targeted species was the Spruce Grouse. We got up at something like 3 am, then drove for over an hour on logging roads. Once reaching the location Khanh had scouted, it took about 20 or 30 minutes for him to locate one of the males. The sun was just about to rise. We spent about an hour with this male. They are totally unafraid of humans and are much more preoccupied with finding a willing female. Their display was so much fun to watch. Here are three of my favorite Spruce Grouse pictures: While driving back out of the mountains, we stopped at another location that Khanh had scouted for song birds. We found some very cooperative Hermit Warblers: We then had to drive on to Eastern Oregon, so most of the rest of that day was a travel day. That evening and the next morning we went to see Great Grey Owls, as well as anything else that chose to present itself. While driving up into the mountains early the next morning, we found a number of song birds I had never seen before. First was MacGillvray Warbler: And next was a Bobolink, a very rare sighting: We finally got up into the mountains not long after the sun rose. Khanh had scouted a location a few weeks earlier of a Great Grey Owl nest. The unusual aspect of this nest was that it is in a natural snag. Most often these Owls use man-made nesting boxes. We spent several hours in this location, but the day was heating up fast, so the female soon spent all her time shading the chick. Luckily we got some shots before it got too hot. Here are 3 of my favorite Great Grey shots: v This was a very hard act to follow, but we tore ourselves away from the Great Gray nest and found lots of other interesting birds. Right in the same field as the Great Gray was a new woodpecker for me, the Black-backed Woodpecker: From there we proceeded to drive back roads to locations Khanh had scouted earlier. We found Williamson's woodpeckers: And Ash-throated Flycatchers: And Lazuli Buntings: Yellow-breasted Chat: Canyon Wren: And last but not least: a Western Screech Owl. Unfortunately he played very hard to get, so this was the best I could do: Our last day with Khanh was a relatively slow one, but after all we had see on the first 3 days, I was not complaining. We saw some Cassin's Vireo.  And a Western Tanager: We also saw a Barn Owl, but we were never able to get a picture of him. All in all, it was one of the most amazing bird tours I have ever taken. I would highly recommend Khanh Tran for any birding tour. He does his homework, and your time is not wasted looking for the birds. Thank you Khanh for a truly memorable trip.

For the past few weeks I have been following an Osprey nest. It is one of the best nests I have seen in terms of visibility into the nest and proximity to a vantage point. There is one chick (one would normally expect two to three chicks), but this chick appeared to be healthy and thriving.  All was well and papa was fulfilling his role as provider. Here he is delivering a flounder to the nest: A few days later I went back to the nest to see how they were getting along. The chick was alone on the nest and practicing its flying moves: Papa was there and coaching the flying and delivering food: But, something was wrong. Mama was sitting on a nearby piling and had a huge gash in her abdomen: She did not look good at all and we realized that nothing would be the same from this point on. It was very unlikely that mama would survive this mortal wound. Most likely she sustained the injury while defending the nest.

The following day I returned to the nest to check on mama and the chick. Mama was still on the same piling looking no better. She had been without food at this point for two days. One of the most interesting things that happened that day was that papa flew over to her several time to do what I called "checking her vital signs". He jumped on her head and shoulders to see how she would respond; was she able to care for her chick?? Each time he jumped on her she could weakly lift her head and wings. She also tried her best to get him literally and figuratively off her back. The good news in all this is that the chick appeared to be well cared for. Papa continued to deliver food, and at this point the chick is old enough to feed itself (mama used to tear off pieces for the chick). What was intriguing was that it appeared that another male had stepped in to help care for the chick. I saw this male giving "flying lessons" to the chick: While we were encouraged that the chick was being well cared for, it was clear that mama was not going to make it. Sadly, the next morning she was no longer on the piling. May she rest in peace knowing that her chick is being well cared for. It takes a village: