Tweeters,

At Big Ditch today:

The meadowlarks are still there. Saw 4-6, with ID of front black bib
on yellow chest and belly for two of them. But they hung around together.
They were at scope distance, but I could hear them sing nicely, so I guess
that makes them Western.

One northern shrike, a first for me. Strikingly beautiful, at least
the one I saw.

A flock of 6+ spotted towhees still there.

3 short-eared owls, one perching. They appeared at dusk, one being
persued relentlessly by crows high in the air.

A female northern flicker.

Hundreds of swans, thousands of snow geese, a few hunters with their
funny duck calls.

Many northern harriers. Many larger hawks, but I'm not good enough to
ID them yet.

Didn't make it all the way out to the water to see the shorebirds, but
I did go over half the way. It's true, waterproof hiking boots are
probably not enough for that job.

Plus one sparrow I can't ID. This description probably fits no known
bird, since I didn't know what to really look for. But just in case it
rings a bell, here it is. It was feeding in some leafless trees on a dike
along the "ditch". It didn't move around much at all in the tree, just
sort of made the most of everything in one small area. It was perhaps 8'
- 10' above the ground. Wasn't a song sparrow. The initial impression was
of a large, plump female house finch. Almost the same color, perhaps a
bit grayer. But there was a noticable eyebrow the same color as the
background chest. And no noticable stripe down the middle of the head.
There was no central chest spot. The chest marking was similar to that of
a song sparrow, except for the spot, but gray and perhaps more stripy.

Bob Mauritsen
Seattle
rhm at ms.washington.edu