Hi Tweets,

It was a beautiful day, so I had my mist-net set up this afternoon while =
I did some yard work. The crowned sparrows are moving through the place =
pretty steadily, and I saw, caught and banded golden-crowned, Puget =
White-crowned and Gambel's White-crowned sparrows. The locally-nesting =
Puget Sound white-crowns have considerable yellow at the bend of the =
wing, and are somewhat smaller than the Gambel's white-crowns (which =
have no yellow at the bend of the wings). It seems that the Gambel's =
lores are whiter than the Pugets' , as well, although I've never seen =
anything written up along those lines (probably just a random =
observation :-) )

What did catch my attention, though was a Pine Siskin that had a =
fully-developed Brood Patch. The brood patch is an area on the breast =
of nesting females which is missing the feathers and is highly =
vascularized (for heat transfer to the eggs, etc). =20

I thought that this seemed early, until I looked in my Jewett et al. =
"Following the unusually mild winter of 1923-24 Bowles writes that =
siskins were unusually abundant in Pierce County. Families of =
full-grown young were flying about with their parents on March 30, =
nesting evidently having begun in February." =20

Just in case anyone hasn't been looking, Spring is certainly here!

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net