Bird of the Day

Uncommon Backyard Birds in Dungeness

Almost all the birds in the Backyard Birds galleries were photographed in North Seattle before we moved to Dungeness in 2007. The only bird from these galleries that I haven't seen in our Dungeness yard is the Pileated Woodpecker. Band-tailed Pigeon, Varied Thrush, and Wilson's Warbler have shown up occasionally.The birds shown below are mostly common in Clallam County, but rarely seen in our yard.

What constitutes a yard bird? For me, it is primarily a bird that is seen flitting in the shrubery, perched in a tree, or at the feeders, actually on our property. But sometimes they may just fly over the yard while I happen to have my camera and capture an image. For example, I regularly see Bald Eagles from our dining room, perched on one of three tall evergreens a couple hundred yards north of us overlooking Dungeness Bay. I've also photographed Merlins perched there. But until the Merlin landed in our yard, or a couple eagles had a fight 20' over our front yard, they didn't qualify as yard birds. The Short-eared Owl flew over the front yard to hunt the field across the road. The rest of the birds below were actually on the ground or the feeders or the shrubs in our yard.

The following photos are in chronological order.