Tweets,

Another Palouse update and a question: I had a male Purple Finch at my
feeder in Albion this morning. I had seen him before, but unfortunately
did not record the date. I made a table of all my feeder species (13 now)
and the original date they showed up. I put a check every day that I see
that species so I can keep track of them all.

Anyway, on the Nat'l Geographic map, it looks like Purple Finches do not
stay around here for summer. Is it unusual to have a few stay all year,
or are they fairly common?

And yesterday afternoon (2:30) I had a close up of a beautiful Northern
Harrier. I was driving home along the Pullman-Albion road, near the
trailer court, and she was floating about two feet off the ground on the
other side of the road. When I first saw her I thought she wasn't real,
she looked a little too perfect, like a duck decoy. I pulled off the road
and grabbed my binocs out of my bag (people in my class make fun of me for
carrying them around) and watched her cruise until a big truck came by.
She was just breathtaking. That's the closest I've ever been to a
Harrier, I guess.

Sherrie
hocketts at vetmed.wsu.edu