Hi folks,

The Christmas Bird Counts around the area always seem to come up with some neat birds.
This time, it was my chance to see a neat one.... our Section Eight crew came up with a
Mockingbird!

Tom Foote had seen the bird on Wednesday before yesterday's count. We tried a half-dozen
times to find it in the morning, to no avail. Then, in the afternoon - the guy in the house where
Tom had seen the bird (and alerted to the fact there was a Mocker..) was a birder came rushing
out to us as we came up again, shouting "I saw it! I saw it!!". Tom & I looked for another hour,
but didn't luck in to it - but, figured that the bird was seen for the count!

I went back today at 2pm - just when the resident saw it yesterday - and Lo! There it was on a
phone wire - just like in a California subdivision! It swept down to the wooden fence, and
plucked a few nightshade berries, then over to a neighbor's cotoneaster, while I sat enthralled 10
feet away. Pretty neat.

The location is at the southeast corner of 4th and Plymouth. To get there from downtown
Olympia, go west up the Harrison Street hill to just where it's not *really* steep, and turn left on
Plymouth or at the Lutheran Church. Plymouth does a funky 'jog' at 4th (not quite a 'cross-
road'). The house where we saw the Mocker was the white one at the SE lot at the corner, with
a brown wooded fence around the back-yard. The bird was using the alley-way behind the
house.

Anyway, it's a neat bird for anyone who hasn't seen this species in Washington, yet.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net