Hi folks,

Since Monday, I've had an interesting Oregon Junco coming to my feeder here in west Olympia. The bird appears to be a male (very black feathers to head and breast), except for quite a bit of leucistic markings throughout the 'hood', that give the bird a bit of similarity to the face of a chickadee. Not exactly the same, but the markings are close enough to make me look twice, each time I see him, at the 'giant chickadee' feeding on the ground.

Besides a lot of erratic white in the face (cheeks, chin, etc.), his left rectrices (tail feathers) appear to be all white - instead of just the outer ones.

Otherwise, he's just the usual wintering Oregon Junco, and treated as such by the other juncos in the flocks.

Other sightings were an immature male Cooper's Hawk seen all morning yesterday perched on the 5th floor ledge of the Natural Resources Building on the east Capitol Campus here in Oly. Unfortunately, I'm "cubilced" in the interior guts of the building, or I'd have wasted the day watching him.......

Flew over Skagit Bay on Monday evening, and there were several large flocks of Snow Geese on the Skagit Delta. Didn't get a count (I think WDFW/USFWS types were to fly a count sometime this week...), but at least a couple thousand seen from my narrow vantage. Didn't see any on the mainland - they were all rafted up out in the salt chuck.

All for now - good birding.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net