Christmastime Birding near Seattle

The Christmas Holiday season is always busy and birding usually takes a seat behind other commitments and activities. This year, Kathy and I headed west to spend the holidays with our daughter Melissa and her family. They live on a heavily wooded 2-acre lot south of Seattle. On previous visits to their home, I have placed bird feeders in several locations to see what bird species I could attract. Various species usually find the feeders within a day or so, but because of a lack of time, the feeders are usually not refilled on a regular basis after we leave.

Shortly after our arrival last week, I managed to sneak out of the house and fill the feeders with sunflower seeds. Amazingly, within several minutes, chickadees began using the feeders! Both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees were surprisingly abundant and fun to watch. Other feathered visitors included several Bewick's wrens. They were much more secretive and mostly stayed on the ground gleaning sunflower seeds that had been scattered from the feeders. Groups of Bushtits were also frequently noted in the vicinity, but they pretty much confined themselves to working on the suet block that I had placed nearby. During the 5 days that we visited, I ID'ed about 20 bird species on this 2-acre area. Not bad for winter birding and the limited time I spent looking. The Western Redcedar, Western hemlock, Douglas-fir, and Bigleaf maple that dominate this landscape should provide for a nice variety of breeding birds this spring - which I look forward to documenting! In previous visits, Steller's jays had used a large platform feeder I had erected but in the intervening months, the squirrels had taken over the platform and it was taken down. People often ask me what my favorite bird is, and I usually struggle to come up with just one. But on this trip, that question was easily answered. It was a little bird named Railey, our 20-month old granddaughter who was overwhelmed by the first Christmas she was able to enjoy!