Hi,
It seemed to be my wife's and my weekend to see these birds. Yesterday
afternoon at Dungeness spit we stopped at the warden's house to look at birds
at the feeder and we found a covee of california quail feeding under the
feeder as well as at the feeder itself. they appeared nervous and only a
couple of minuts after we started watching them, a sharp shinned hawk swooped
down on them and they fled back into the undergrowth. The sharp shinned hawk
flew off into the nearby trees empty handed ( clawed?).
Later that afternoon, we were in the holding area at the Port Townsend ferry
and I was watching some house sparrows in some blackberries and could not
beleive what I was seeing as another sharp shinned hawk dived into the
blackberries and scattered the sparrows.
I could hardly credit getting two close ups of this bird.
Other wise quite an uneventful weekend.
We did see +/- 40 red-necked phalaropes as we crossed on the ferry on
Saturday from Edmonds to Kingston.
At the 3 Crabs restaurant on Sunday there was 300 american wigeon along the
shore.
Many thanks to all who have responded to the Costa Rica thread. Cannot wait
to see the chiggers. Whilst I lived in Africa, we had a similar pest that
burrowed into the skin and then hatched there and when ready ate its way out
of your skin.
In order to overcome this, we had to iron all clothes that had been left out
to dry.
If infected the only cure was to apply vaseline over the blighter, cap with a
band aid and after a couple of days it would die and the band aid drew it
out.
Thanks,
Bill
Siuebill2 at aol.com