Today I spotted the first Goldfinches returning to the backyard here in the Willamette Valley this spring. A large flock arrived around noon and descended on the feeder, it was quite the sight with them all dressed up in their spring finery. They are impressive with those brilliant yellow bodies with dark black wings with two white wing bars, the males with their shiny black cap. I was too lazy to get up and get my camera so I just posted a photo from my archives, which are cached in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar buried in the backyard.

The morning crowd at the Flying D Café

Male and Female Evening Grosbeaks

Men’s Club… No Females Allowed

The Guys Pig Out

Western Scrub Jay

Evening Grosbeak

This is my first sighting of this species since Moving to Oregon.

This morning a flock of about twenty visited the backyard as I was enjoying morning coffee .

Early this morning went on a photographic excursion to photograph the Roosevelt elk herd outside Jewell, Oregon in the Pacific Coast Mountain range.  After a two hour drive along winding roads blanketed with fog and freezing mist I arrived at the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area.  Not long after my arrival the elk slowly emerged from the fog into the meadow.

The Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti), also known as Olympic elk, is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk in North America.

Below a pair of bulls joust with their antlers.