Sunday 12/07/97 -- 11:45am ----

The GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE was seen by about a dozen of us early risers this
morning at the Skagit WRA between 0900-1000hrs. The bird can be found amongst
the sparrow flock in the long narrow row of spirea-blackberry-alder running
south along the west edge of the cornfield beginning from the dike road that
goes to the boat launch and parking area at the end of Wiley Road. This
morning the very accommodating bird was seen well and photographed about 1/4
mile south of the dike road. It could be anywhere in that row of brush, so
just sort through the sparrow flock. It usually feeds out in the open on the
ground with the other sparrows, juncos, and spotted towhees, and perches
conspicuously up on the edge of the brush 1-4 feet above the ground. The
towhee is adult or very near adult, rufous cap more faded than shows in the
field guides, but still obvious and conspicuous as is the white throat, black
whisker marks, gray chest and flanks, whitish belly, olive green back, and
greenish wings and tail. The towhee may also be occasionally vocal. I heard
two short phrases of song which alerted me that the bird was further along in
the spirea than we all were originally looking. You might want to listen to
the Peterson Western CD or tape to refresh your memory, then be surprised if
you actually hear it while you're there. Nice bird. Good luck.

A nice assortment of sparrows in there included White-crowned, Golden-crowned,
Fox, Song, Lincoln's, and minimally two TREE SPARROWS, maybe as many as five
or so. The Tree Sparrows are very conspicuous and flitting around so much, it
was hard to determine how many there really are. They repeatedly perch out in
the open and are impossible to miss. One anomalous Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco
in the sparrow flock to watch for is a pale leucocystic (pale) individual with
mostly whitish wings.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)
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God was my co-pilot,
but when we crashed in the mountains,
I had to eat him :-))
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