Purple Finches and Multiflora Berries

It's been a quiet start leading up to winter photography. Gloomy days and high winds have discouraged walkabouts. The Tree Sparrows are late returning from the north and the White-throated Sparrows are still in the deep forest not yet motivated to attend at our offerings. We usually have about 40 overwintering White-throated Sparrows and 20 overwintering Tree Sparrows, but not as yet. We do have about 30 Blue Jays and 40 Mourning Doves plus five Ring-necked pheasants that clean out two yogourt cup fulls of mixed seed before noon.

Along the coastal trails a couple of Northern Shrike have added interest while Harlequin Ducks, Razorbills, Black Guillemots, Grebes, Murres, and migrating Northern Gannets have frequented the inshore waters but all out of effective photographic range.

The highlight today was a pair of juvenile female Purple Finches working our mutlt-flora brambles. It's a challenge to get the eyes of these birds in focus with so many berries about capturing the attention of my camera's focus engine, but perhaps they will revisit tomorrow.