Backyard Wildlife

Dog or Coyote remains.
 
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Pretty serious cropping on this set from yesterday. Looks like the Starling was a little too complacent around this immature Bald eagle....

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Ahhh..telephoto compression to the rescue ! Starling actually about 10-15 feet this side of the landing mark.
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Below is same perch from 90 degree angle West (and 800 yards away), this time a Golden eagle with 4 Starlings keeping a safe distance, just incase..
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Any lucking finding a Eurasian? I keep seeing them pop up in the tri-cities birding reports.
I have yet to see any of those, but the larger rafts of ducks are way out toward the Columbia. I'll keep looking.
Technically neither are β€œbackyard wildlife” so I hesitate to offer forth the following:
No "hesitation" necessary. Side/front/extended backyard photos are good and yours are a delightful sight indeed!
 
Here are a from the "extended" backyard:

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I saw several drakes last spring at Three Crabs near Dungeness Spit. They were mixed in with American wigeons.
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Steve
Eurasians are always a rare treat to find. They are very beautiful ducks!

A few days back, I was standing with my camera on tripod (unusual patience for me) waiting for something to fly onto a well used raptor perch when I had an odd flight patterned bird zip by me about 40 yards away. Thought it was a flicker or a jay with it's up and down/wavelike undulating flightpath.
Closer look revealed it to be a Northern Shrike !

I thought I saw one driving near our area about 2 months back but I sort of started questioning myself if I did see it.
Shrikes are also known as "Butcher Bird" as they are little killers. They often impale their food cache on thorns or barbed wire for later consumption.

These are really, really cool birds, these shrikes. A bird of far northern regions for breeding and only uncommonly here to Winter. One of only two species in all of North and South America. Most of the relatives live in Africa I believe.

Poor photos of a super unique bird
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Eurasians are always a rare treat to find. They are very beautiful ducks!

A few days back, I was standing with my camera on tripod (unusual patience for me) waiting for something to fly onto a well used raptor perch when I had an odd flight patterned bird zip by me about 40 yards away. Thought it was a flicker or a jay with it's up and down/wavelike undulating flightpath.
Closer look revealed it to be a Northern Shrike !

I thought I saw one driving near our area about 2 months back but I sort of started questioning myself if I did see it.

Shrikes are also known as "Butcher Birds" as they are little killers. They often impale their food cache on thorns or barbed wire for later consumption.

They are really, really cool birds, these shrikes. A bird of far northern regions for breeding and only uncommonly here to Winter. One of only two species in all of North and South America. Most of the relatives live in Africa I believe.

Poor photos of a super unique bird

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Shrikes are little killers. They impale their food because they lack the talons to hold it in place.

 
Way not in my backyard. My wife and I made a brief trip to the westside to look at some birds and get out of the desert for a bit. Thanks to some guidance from Gyrfalcon22 and Straman77 and some exploring we found a couple of great places. These were the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and Point Ledbetter State Park.
Lots of bald eagles

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Herring Gull
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Song Sparrow IMG_1470.JPG Northern Shoveler I think - a new bird for me
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Ring Necked Duck
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