Agreed, agreed........the shared, thoughtful introspections and broad
environmental reports from the participants in this group; the vast,
collective knowledge and the spirited, often humorous, nearly always
civilized exchanges greatly add to my continuing education. Bird watching
is so much more than bird sightings. I've been keeping bird (and other
critters) records now for nearly 30 years, and there are declines in many
species that have no chance of being reversed except by the many of us who
are open to continuing education. Yes, the inclusion of the wildlife
journal reports and abstracts is WELCOME and FUN and ENLIGHTENING!

I do have a bird report: All three species---Double-crested, Brandt's and
Pelagic---of cormorants can now be seen from the fishing pier at the
Des Moines WA Marina plus the three scoters---Surf, White-winged, and
Black and the four common grebes (Western, Pied-billed, Red-necked, and
Horned). The monster holiday storm wiped out or drove away essentially
all of our winter resident Wigeons and a many of the Mallards, but
Red-breasted Mergansers have increased in the local bay (very uncommon
last season).

We had an interesting Kent/Auburn Christmas Bird Count on Jan 05 with most
of the common duck populations way down. A recently dead Common Murre was
reported along the Puget Sound shore somewhere between Saltwater Park and
Dash Point. A lively raft of a dozen+ Brant geese was seen just south of
the Des Moines Yacht Club. And there are hoards of Barrow's Goldeneye
right in amongst the boat slips at the Des Moines Marina. The complete
CBC report should be in the Rainier and/or Tahoma Audubon Chapter
newletters in the next few weeks. Any other Tweeter on this count? Jim
Flynn, what did your group see?

Yikes and yawn, it's 12:50AM!
Maureen E. Ellis (me2 at u.washington.edu) U of WA and Des Moines, WA
****************************************************************************
On Sat, 11 Jan 1997, Kelly Mcallister wrote:
>
> On Sat, 11 Jan 1997, James Lyles wrote:
>
> > Because tweeters is precisely the place to discuss the contents
> > of technical publications, to join the fray in the dreaded cat thread
> > or to indulge in the occasional outbreak of puns, to debate avian
> > adaptive evolution, to cheer on the rehabilitation of the Montlake
> > Fill, to digress into musings on disappearing amphibians, to anticipate
> > Dennis Paulson's work on dragonflies...
>
> [snip]
>
> > I must suppose that Jon's unnamed critic is not particularly familiar
> > with the spirit and history of Tweeters and has confused Tweeters
> > with some other list.
>
> Well said. If Tweeters were nothing more than people's bird sightings, I
> wouldn't be here. As it is, I can't keep myself away for long.
>
> Kelly McAllister
>