Wallis,

>Are creepers year round or winter only residents
>of Seattle?

If Seattle's anything like Vancouver BC, and it should be pretty close, both
and more. Resident in appropriate habitat (mature and old-growth forest),
north- and southbound migrant, and winter resident. Unless you study an area
on a virtually daily basis for a year, it's easy to have the birds in the
local population mask the migratory and winter residency birds. Their
migration can be from both the higher forests in the mountains down to the
valleys and from northern parts of the range. Good treatment in Campbell's
Birds of BC, vol 3.

>I also spotted a bird in Seward that I have not yet
>been able to identify, at first I thought it was a chickadee because size and
>markings were very similar. However, upon closer examination, and the bird
>let me have a good look, it resembled more the wren in shape. Black crown,
>white eyestripe, black bar beneath that, grayish body.

Female Golden-crowned Kinglet?

>Am I frightfully imaginative or does it appear there has been an explosion in
>the flicker population in forested areas of Seattle?

Frightfully, Wallis, old top. Actually, the flicker population between about
Vancouver BC and treeline in the Arctic (that includes just about all of BC,
the Yukon, and Alaska) started arriving about two weeks ago. Noisy
individuals and flicker-flocks figure in our future for about the next
couple-three weeks. Best time to see 'Yellow-shafted'-race birds,
incidentally, although 98% of them, rhetorically speaking, will actually be
Red-shafted X Yellow-shafted hybrids from the NE BC contact-zone, and half
of them will show it morphologically. And if you think they're common in the
forests, check out any lawns beside forest edges in parks.

Speaking of the rains of Noah, has anyone else seen the satellite shot of
the storm off the BC coast? BCTV in Vancouver BC did a time-lapse of it,
looked like a beautiful spiral galaxy turning.

Cheers

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net