Hi Tweets,

Janet and I spent two weeks on the east coast taking care of some family
matters. During that time we birded a little. This was exciting for
me since it is my first time there. Our trip ranged from the Adirondacks,
Vermont, NYC, Princeton, to Cape May.

Life birds were:
Common Grackle
Blue Jay (seemed to be everywhere)
Blackburnian Warbler
Prothonothry Warbler
(heard the PeterPeterPeter?? of the) Tufted Titmouse
Black-throated Blue Warbler (wonderful close sighting)
Northern Cardinal (Princeton graveyard, looking for Janet's Grandparents)
Louisana Waterthrush
Black-and-white Warbler
Seaside Sparrow
Glossy Ibis
American Black Duck
Wilson's Plover
Laughing Gull (at first I thought it was some sort of a toy's noise!)
Great Black-backed Gull
Royal Terns
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Also we unfortunately disturbed a Common Loon and chick on Raquette Lake.
It went into a spectacular distraction display which caused us to beat a
swift retreat. ;-(

In NYC we were downtown having breakfast at a small cafe when we noticed a
small bird outside the window in a planter box. We were shocked to see it
was a female American Redstart. Somehow it had come down in the desert of
steel, glass, and cement. It was bouncing off the window. Finally with
the help of the restaurant staff we were able to catch it. I carried it
in my cupped hands five blocks to Central Park where it quickly flew up
into a tree. I was thrilled to hold the little gal and see her so close.

Upon our return I sighted a new species of owl on the Web! Check out
the Say-what Owl (Aegolius preposterous).

http://www.eskimo.com/~jrlyles/index.html

Cheers,

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <dvictor at u.washington.edu>
Web = http://weber.u.washington.edu/~dvictor/dan.html