I appreciated Dennis's comments as it really pointed out
to me the need to be very careful to be accurate in bird
reporting. I apologize for incorrect ID of some birds. We
saw a lot of birds that day and apparently in our haste to
cover all survey area we made some hasty decisions. It shows
the need to always be cautious in ID'ing birds with
considering all alternatives or double-checking the bird
books. It has sent me back to the books to do further
research. The following books were helpful: Dennis's "Guide
to Bird Finding in Wash.", "Advance Birding", "The Complete
Birder", "Master Guide to Birding" series, and the Nat'l
Geog. bird book. I should check those books more often.
Anyway, this humbling experience will hopefully result in my
being a better and more careful birder in the future.
I discussed the comments with my partner, and after
reviewing our books these are our responses.
Terns - We agree the reported Forster's must have been
Common Terns. I should have check Dennis's book as it does
show the Forsters to only occur in E. Wash.
Grebes - Also agree on Horned rather Eared. Another hasty
decision. Review of books confirm it was Horned Grebes we
saw.
Gulls - Agree that most of Herring Gulls probably were
W.xG-w hybrids. We got into the bad habit of ignoring the
hybrid possibility and trying to stuff them into a specific
category. We will be more careful in the future. After
checking the referenced books again I feel we should be able
to sort out the hybrids more consistently.
We are changing our survey results to reflect the above.
Thrush - We did get a pretty good look and discussed
whether it could be a Hermit or Swainson's, but went with
Swainson's. My partner is willing to concede it being a
Hermit. However, based on the buffy lores and eye ring, and
brownish rather reddish tail, I still incline to a
Swainson's. We saw it foraging under bushes on the sewage
pond slopes behind the building at the site, in case anyone
else wants to look for it.
Again I appreciated the critique and look forward to
better and more accurate birding in the future. I still
have a lot to learn.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
gfjc96a at prodigy.com