Tweeters,

I had trouble with the attached file for the first Lyle unofficial Christmas
Bird Count but, because this is an interesting area, I went to some trouble to
decode it. WordPerfect 5.1 couldn't deal with it, but Notepad could read the
file (after a fashion). I had to delete out a lot of inexplicable special
characters.
Did others have trouble reading this?

Here's the bird list I ended up with. Bob, is this right?

> 3 Pied-billed Grebes
> 2 Killdeer
> 1 Horned Grebe
> 2 Herring Gull
> 7 Western Grebes
> 50 Rock Doves
> 3 Double-Crested Cormorants
> 1 Belted Kingfisher
> 5 Great Blue Herons
> 6 Northern Flicker
> 250 Canada Geese
> 1 Hairy Woodpecker
> 136 Mallards
> 4 Lewis Woodpecker
> 16 Gadwall
> 2 Steller's Jays
> 36 American Wigeon
> 19 Scrub Jays
> 20 Ring-necked Duck
> 3 American Crows
> 10 Greater Scaup
> 2 Ravens
> 10 Lesser Scaup
> 4 Black-capped Chickadees
> 7 Barrow's Goldeneye
> 1 Mountain Chickadee
> 9 Common Goldeneye
> 1 Northern Shrike
> 9 Bufflehead
> 136 Euopean Starlings
> 1 Hooded Merganser
> 19 Golden-crowned Sparrows
> 21 Common Merganser
> 6 White-crowned Sparrows
> 4 Bald Eagles
> 21 Dark-eyed Juncos
> 15 Red-tailed Hawks(1 albinistic)
> 9 Western Meadowlark
> 4 American Kestrel
> 6 House Finch
> 1 Merlin
> 1 Pine Siskin
> 2 Ring-necked Pheasant
> 1 American Goldfinch
> 3 California Quail
> 1 House Sparrow
> 124 American Coot

> Total species identified: 47
> Total birds: 998

> Weather: Very pleasant, high in 50's, windless
> Early morning fog and light clouds, clearing in afternoon
> Count Organizer: Bob Hansen, 503.364.6201, bhansen at open.org
> Participants: Karen, Louis and Zoe Hans, Jim Minick of Lyle, Washington
> Joe and Marge Byrne of The Dalles, Oregon


The Herring Gulls here caught my eye. Since we have been talking
Glaucous-winged X
Western Gull hybrids, anyone want to give a primer on distinguishing winter
adults
of this hybrid and winter adult Herring Gulls? My limited experience with
these gulls
suggests they would look very similar.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia Washington