After my trip to Boulder, I then spent a week or more with the
in-laws in Tacoma, WA for Christmas and New Years. Here, again,
I saw 47 species (what can I say? I'm a Pomona alum!) and 1 lifer.
The lifer was a gorgeous LITTLE GULL at American Lake south of
Tacoma, apparently in for its third winter. I didn't get a chance
to look for a Slaty-backed Gull, just reported from a landfill near
Olympia. Thanks to Bill Shomerdine (spelling?) for directions to
the Little Gull!

As I've mentioned in the past, my in-law's living room and deck
hang over Puget Sound, and from here I saw 23 species swimming
by the window:

LOONS: COMMON, RED-TROATED
GREBES: RED-NECKED, HORNED, WESTERN
CORMORANT: DOUBLE-CRESTED
GEESE: CANADA
DUCKS: MALLARD, AM. WIGEON, GREATER SCAUP, both GOLDENEYES,
BUFFLEHEAD, SURF and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, all three
MERGANSERS
ALCIDS: PIGEON GUILLEMOT, RHINOCEROUS AUKLET
GULLS: GL-WINGED, MEW, BONAPARTE'S

Also from their house I saw a BALD EAGLE and probably my most
unusual sighting (besides the staked out Little Gull), a
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. This latter bird was found by my
most unusual method ever: we were fooling around with a pair of
infra-red night-vision goggles (shaped like binoculars)at 11 PM
on Christmas day. My wife comes in from the deck, after
trying out the goggles, and says "there's a funny cormorant on
the piling out there". I go out with the goggles a take a
look... Apparently this species is quite rare up there.
Unfortunately, I never saw it again. The location is between
Day Island and the mouth of Chambers Creek, so it could be
anywhere along there.

A possible OLDSQUAW flew by me at American Lake, so I'd be
interested if any Washington birders relocate it. It had
a dark gray head and neck with a large white face, but it
whizzed by so fast I couldn't rule out some domestic mutant.
The rump and tail looked good for Oldsquaw, though it
lacked the long tail feathers. [I'm not subscribed to
Tweeters, so let me know directly.]


STEVE HAMPTON [hampton at gordy.ucdavis.edu]
Dept. of Ag. and Natural Resource Economics
UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616 USA