Tweeters,

Today, at the South Tacoma Wildlife Area, I saw an American pipit working
the shoreline of one of the newly created (dug last fall) ponds. I haven't
noticed much mention of pipits in the various species lists on Tweeters.
This bird caught my eye as it walked swiftly along the barren shoreline of
the pond. As I got close I noticed the buffy color on the throat and
breast. I was wading around net-sweeping for invertebrates, fish, and
amphib larvae and didn't have binoculars but I approached fairly close and
watched it pump its tail up and down. When it flushed I clearly saw the
white outer tail feathers. Perhaps pipits are frequent during migration
here. However, I have only seen them in the alpine on Mount Rainier during
mid-summer so the migrants have eluded me until now.

On May 2, a merlin crashed into one of the large windows of the Department
of Transportation building on the Capital campus of Olympia. I saw the dead
body which was in excellent condition and Joe Buchanan informed me it was of
the columbarius subspecies and a certain migrant. I believe the woman who
brought it by is going to deliver it to some worthy museum, probably The
Evergreen State College (sorry Dennis).

Kelly McAllister
alleyes at tssnet1.tss.net