Hi folks,

I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon walking around the Wash. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
lands near Elma. I also scoped the Vance Creek County Park ponds, near the airport along
Wenzel Slough Road. Another of our usual western Washington beautiful, sunny, warm
December afternoons!

For all the wonderful weather, I didn't see a whole lot of different species. However, any day
spent birding in the winter sunshine is well worth the effort. I saw:

Double-crested Cormorant
Pied-billed Grebe
California Gull
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
"Olympic Gull"
Killdeer
Snipe
Domestic Duck
Mallard
Pintail
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Shoveller
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Greater Scaup (the scaup were side-by-side, made ID a LOT easier....)
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Hooded Merganser
Common Merg.
Coot (lots)
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
N Harrier
Kestrel
Great Blue Heron
Am. Bittern
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove
Kingfisher
Red-shafted Flicker
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Steller's Jay
Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewers Blackbird
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Robin
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Oregon Junco
House Finch
Spotted Towhee

"Microtus" vole (in the talons of the Red-tailed Hawk)
Shrew sp.
Chickaree
Coyote
"Beaver Sticks"

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net