>I spent New Years with some friends who live on Vashon and heard a Great Horned
>Owl both Sat/Sun nights. I'm unfamiliar with the Christmas Bird Count
>boundaries so I'm not sure if would fall into Seattle or Kent? The bird was
>on Maury Island close to the King Radio towers. It was calling both nights
>before and after midnight. We also walked around the newly acquired (but not
>public yet) King County park on Maury Island. It was part of a gravel pit
>and has an incredible view of Mt. Rainer south towards Tacoma. The access road
>meanders through a large pure stand of Arbutus (Madrona) that was full of
>robins and ends up on a large beach with a pier. I'm pretty sure I saw a
>flock of Bohemian Waxwings fly over as well. A pod of Orcas were travelling up
>the sound as we walked down the hill. A great way to start off 1995.
>
>Tracee Geernaert
>IPHC
>Seattle, WA 989145
>tracee at hal.iphc.washington.edu
>

Tracee, if you go to the stand of Arbutus again, check those robins for
Dusky Thrushes. I don't see why they should only be in BC (I don't think
you'd be doing your country a bad deed by doing this). How many people out
there look through those robin flocks? As I wrote before, it's a great way
just to see variation in a common species, even if there isn't a rare
thrush in the flock. Are Varied Thrushes feeding in the madronas as well?
There are a few of both speciesin our backyard every day eating fallen
mountain ash berries and Cotoneaster berries.

There is a small Red-breasted Sapsucker invasion of the lowlands; how many
people have seen evidence of that?

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416