Latest field note · 14 October 2026
A Curious Wood-Pewee and Other Birds in Autumn
A Western Wood Pee-Wee watching me closely and more birds among fall colors.
Best of the year
See the full editRufous Hummingbird female feeding her fledgling
Wood Duck duckling communicating with mother
Curious Western Wood-Pewee in an Oregon White Oak
Two Pigeon Guillemots fly through crashing waves in Santa Cruz, CA. to deliver a fish to feed young in burrow
Female juvenile Hooded Merganser in a pond at Nisqually NWR
A male Black-chinned Hummingbird squares off with an Anna's Hummingbird at U.C. Davis Hummingbird Garden.
Rufous Hummingbird, recently fledged at Nisqually NWR, rests while waiting for Mom to come and feed him
Bald Eagle sits in a tree overlooking the Deschutes River at Tumwater Historical Park in Tumwater, WA
An elderberry in the bill — Swainson’s Thrushes eat insects, berries, and soft fruits
Rufous Hummingbird Selasphorus rufus Declining
Nisqually NWR · South Puget Sound · Spring or Summer
Rufous Hummingbird female feeding her fledgling
Wood Duck Aix sponsa
McLane Creek · Capital state forest · Spring and Summer
Wood Duck duckling communicating with mother
Western Wood-Pewee Contopus sordidulus
Scatter Creek Wildlife Area · South Puget Sound · Spring and summer
Curious Western Wood-Pewee in an Oregon White Oak
Pigeon Guillemot Cepphus columba
West Cliff Dr. Santa Cruz, CA · Santa Cruz, CA · spring or summer
Two Pigeon Guillemots fly through crashing waves in Santa Cruz, CA. to deliver a fish to feed young in burrow
Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus
Nisqually NWR · South Puget Sound · June
Female juvenile Hooded Merganser in a pond at Nisqually NWR
Black-chinned Hummingbird Archilochus alexandri
U.C. Davis University · Davis, CA · Spring or summer
A male Black-chinned Hummingbird squares off with an Anna's Hummingbird at U.C. Davis Hummingbird Garden.
Rufous Hummingbird Selasphorus rufus Declining
Nisqually NWR · South Puget Sound · Spring and Summer
Rufous Hummingbird, recently fledged at Nisqually NWR, rests while waiting for Mom to come and feed him
Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Deschutes River, Tumwater Historical Park · Tumwater, WA · year round
Bald Eagle sits in a tree overlooking the Deschutes River at Tumwater Historical Park in Tumwater, WA
Swainson's Thrush Catharus ustulatus Declining
Nisqually NWR · South Puget Sound · Spring and summer
An elderberry in the bill — Swainson’s Thrushes eat insects, berries, and soft fruits
Photographed from the public boardwalk, undisturbed.
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All locations- U.C. Davis University hummingbird garden with flowering plants · Davis, CA 4 frames
- Beachcrest beach just west of Nisqually Reach · South Puget Sound 14 frames
- Scatter Creek Wildlife Area native prairie, riparian and forest, Oregon white oak stands · South Puget Sound 13 frames
- West Cliff Dr. Santa Cruz, CA coastal bluff on the Pacific Ocean · Santa Cruz, CA 3 frames
- Black Lake Meadows natural wetlands · Olympia, WA 5 frames
- Mitchell Bay, San Juan Island sheltered inlet · San Juan Island 5 frames
- Deschutes River, Tumwater Historical Park riverside park · Tumwater, WA 1 frames
- Leavenworth, Washington Ponderosa Pine forest · Cascade Mountain foothills 1 frames
- Llana Seco wetland and grassland wildlife refuge · Butte County, California 1 frames
- McLane Creek Tranquil wooded paths around pond and creek · Capital state forest 4 frames
- Nisqually NWR tidal estuary · South Puget Sound 42 frames
- Ocean Shores outer-coast mudflat · Grays Harbor 0 frames
- Olympic Rainforest old-growth · Olympic Peninsula 0 frames
- Ridgefield NWR freshwater marsh · Lower Columbia 0 frames
- Skagit Flats farmland & sloughs · Skagit Valley 0 frames
The Field Notes letter
Every so often — when I have been somewhere worth writing about — I will send you a new field note by email: photographs from the outing, and some natural history to go with them.