Evening Grosbeak Feeding Chick

 Some really bad photos from a very cute encounter this morning with a baby Evening Grosbeak being fed by a parent. I had never witnessed a parent bird actually cracking a sunflower seed before feeding it to a chick. Such dedication!

 Here are the photos cropped (and blurry) showing the adult cracking the seed before feeding to chick.

Colorful Song Sparrow

This bird caught my eye as it was feeding on the seed I throw out each morning. We have lots of Song and Fox Sparrows this time of year but this Song Sparrow had the brightest head striping I've ever seen on a Song Sparrow. Peterson's says there are nearly 30 races of Song Sparrows in the west.

colorful Song Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Fox and Song Sparrows

Say's Phoebe, Linn County, Oregon

We saw this bird on our last North Santiam raptor route of the season, March 17, 2016. It was on Gates School Rd. south of Kingwood Ave.

Eurasian Collared-Dove

These birds have colonized Oregon quite rapidly. We get a few here on the farm off and on, although we mostly have Mourning Doves. When both species come in for grain that I throw in front of the barn, the EC Doves are clearly subordinate to the Mourning Doves, who chase their bigger cousins away. But we never get more than two or three EC Doves so maybe things would be different if there were hordes of them.

Recently, an EC Dove managed to get inside the chicken house but could not figure how to get back out. The chicken house is open, through low poultry-sized doors, to the chicken yard and last year's garden, both of which are open on top. We cover the garden with netting during gardening season but the netting is off now. So it was easy enough for the EC Dove to get into the chicken house by flying into the chicken yard and walking through the low door. However, it could not figure out how to reverse that procedure. After three days, Johnny took pity on the bird and caught it. Before he turned it loose I had him hold it every-which-way so I could take photos. I'd never seen the complete underside of the tail. I was surprised at the patterning.

topside of bird has almost-blue coloring on sides of back, under wings

That same blue on top of wings, maybe what Sibley calls "gray band across wing coverts". The eye ring appears to be the same, soft blue.

underside of tail (a little soiled from hanging out on chicken house floor, probably)

pink feet!

soft brown chest

After the photo shoot, Johnny opened his hand and gave a little fling, but the bird just sat there, clinging to his hand. So he set it on a tree branch. It took a few seconds before the bird realized it was free, I guess, but then it took off, flying strongly and well, far, far out of sight. We haven't seen or heard an EC Dove here since. But I suppose others will find the free meal in front of the barn some morning.

I don't mind Eurasian Collared-Doves during the winter, when they are mostly silent. But I would prefer not to have them during their "singing" season. They are pretty birds, but their repetitive calls drive me nuts.

Cooper's or Red-shouldered???

 I called it a Cooper's Hawk when I saw it today on our Grand Ronde Raptor Run. But now that I've seen the photo, I think it is a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk because of the vertical streaks on upper breast and horizontal streaks on lower. But the tail banding has wide white bands and I thought they were narrow on RSHA? Also the wings look short compared to the tail (near as I can tell) which would make it an accipiter. Was I right in the first place? I am so confused!

photo cropped and lightened below...

Thanks to Hendrik Herlyn for this response: I think your initial impression was correct - this is an immature Cooper's Hawk. The tail is too long for Red-shouldered, which also doesn't have so many bars (and you are right, it would have narrower white bands). The underside looks too evenly streaked for a RSHA, and the head pattern and color is very typical for a young Cooper's.

And Wayne Hoffman for this: You were right the first time - Cooper's Hawk.  In addition to the characters you mentioned, the head is relatively small.  The underparts pattern does look sort of like a Red-shouldered with the bibbed chest look and paler belly, but is far paler (fewer streaks) them most young Red-shoulders.

Mountain and Snowy Plovers

Today Dawn V and I drove to South Beach State Park, just south of Newport, to look for the Mountain Plover that has been hanging around there for weeks with a flock of Snowy Plovers. We trained our binoculars up and down the beach and quickly saw a bevy of little shorebirds north of the trail from the parking area. We walked closer and there was our Mountain Plover, keeping company with a little flock of Snowy Plovers. Farther out toward the ocean were a few Sanderlings running up and down as they like to do, with a few Snowy Plovers trying to keep up with them. The Mountain Plover was much bigger than his Snowy friends. My photos were taken at a distance in light rain (so they're lousy... but numerous.)

Mountain Plover top, Snowy Plover bottom in both  these photos

Mtn. Plover center, Snowies right and left

Snowy Plover

Snowy Plover

Sanderling left, 3 Snowies right

Mountain Plover

Mountain Plover

Mtn. Plover

Mtn. Plover

Mtn. Plover

Raptor Route Mystery Hawks

Update:

Lessons I have learned:

from OBOL birders...

1) If it has a red tail, it is a Red-tailed Hawk, unless it's a Kestrel which this first bird clearly is not, having no face mask. Even though it looked small to me, the red tail means it's a Red-tail. Maybe it was a little male.

2) If it is obviously a big hawk (like the 2nd bird) on top of a tree, it is a Red-tailed Hawk until proven otherwise. They can be very light in front (like the 2nd bird).

Other lessons I have learned: 

1) Size and distance can be very difficult to judge.

2) Do not assume the raptor that flew out of sight is the same one you see a little later from a different angle.

3) On a raptor route, if you don't know what it is, try to take a quick snapshot and then continue. Do not agonize over birds that are too far away or too hidden in shrubbery to be easily identified. It will make you rush through the rest of your route and possibly miss raptors.

4) After running this route every winter since January of 2005, I am still learning new stuff.

Now here is my original plea:

Help, please! Usually, I can identify the raptors we see on my Grand Ronde raptor route. Today, however, we saw a small hawk near the top of a deciduous tree along the South Yamhill River that I could never get a clear look at it because twigs were in the way. I had forgotten to bring my camera with the super zoom. Drat! Here is the hawk from the back, shooting into the sun. The tail (I think that's a tail) did appear reddish brown as in the photo... or at least something did.

 I walked up the road to take a photo with the sun at my back but could not get to where I could see the front of the bird. My first thought when I saw it from the back was Merlin. But the brown tail threw me. And the front has barring on the side, apparently, and is light. I've only seen dark Merlins here. Help!

 The bird flew while I was trying to get the scope on it. We drove on to Shenk Wetlands, across the South Yamhill River from the bird. We saw a bird in the top of a very distant fir that I thought might be the same bird. But now, looking at the photos, I don't think so. This bird appears much bigger than the first bird. Johnny took a photo of the bird's back through the scope. (He has a very dirty camera lens on his little camera.)

We then drove quickly back to the road, found the tree which was still a very long way from the road, and Johnny took more photos through the scope. Now it looks like a Red-tailed Hawk, sort of. But what's with the pale horizontal barring (hard to see in our photos but obvious in person).

Here are the photos I took with my camera.

 Front view, unlightened...

 Please click on the photos to bring them up big. Sorry they are so terrible. I am feeling really dumb about these ids. I have pored through my Wheeler book, Raptors of Western North America, but cannot figure out the small raptor. As for the other hawk (at least I think it is a different bird), I guess Red-tails can come in a multitude of designs so unless someone has a better idea...

Just to show I can tell what a bird is when it's obvious, here is one of the 3 Red-shouldered Hawks we saw on the route today... very far away.

And a Bald Eagle, even farther away.

 I love adult Red-shouldered Hawks and Bald Eagles. I can tell what they are at any distance.