Subject: Washington BirdBox 7/28/98 through 8/1/98
Date: Aug 02 02:04:23 1998
From: Jane Hadley - jhadle at halcyon.com


Transcribed by Jane Hadley
jhadle at halcyon.com
phone: (206) 328-7605

The Washington BirdBox is a voice mailbox sponsored by the
Washington Ornithological Society. To leave a message about a
notable sighting, or to listen to the messages from the last seven
days, call (425) 454-2662 and follow the prompts. Hal
Opperman, system administrator (halop at accessone.com;
personal phone 425-635-0503).

Please contact me (Jane Hadley) by phone or e-mail if you have
any corrections, comments or questions about this
transcription.

Saturday, Aug. 1, 9:26 p.m. Hi. This is Stephen Mlodinow.
Today Dennis Duffy and I birded from Ocean Shores around to
Tokeland and then finished the day at the festive Raymond
Sewage Ponds. Highlights of the day were all present at
Tokeland at what I believe is called Graveyard Spit. To reach
this site, take Tokeland Road, and when it bends to the left,
there is a residential road that continues straight on. Take that
road until that road itself makes a 90-degree turn to the left.
Park here in a small parking area -- just about two cars -- and
look to the left. There's a spit on the other side. Three or so
hours prior to high tide in the evening, the BAR-TAILED
GODWIT was seen. This bird is in pretty much basic plumage.
It's pretty worn. Also at closer to higher tide, we had four
ELEGANT TERNS and an ARCTIC TERN from this area. At
the Tokeland Marina at high tide, there were six WILLETS.
Also, around high tide time, 50,000 SOOTY SHEARWATERS
were seen pouring in from Willapa Bay. Over at the Ocean
Shores side, things were slower, but we did have a BAIRD'S
SANDPIPER at the pond at Damon Point and two
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS at Bill's Spit. That's it. Good
luck and good birding.

Saturday, Aug. 1, 5:41 p.m. Jan Bragg, 206-524-3460. There
were 29 BONAPARTE'S GULLS on the raft in the swimming
area at Magnuson Park in Seattle this morning, 10 to 11 a.m.

Friday, July 31, 4:07 p.m. Steve Dang, 206-368-6887, birded
Jetty Island, which is in Everett today with Steve Gerstle(?),
Cynthia Wilson and Russell Kirts(?) Among the more interesting
birds that we saw there were two LONG-BILLED CURLEW,
about 100 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, about 12
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, and one COMMON TERN. After
Jetty Island, we went over to the Two Rivers State Prison
Farm, which is south of Monroe, where we had one
PECTORAL SANDPIPER.

Friday, July 31, 8:57 a.m. This is Andy Stepniewski, Friday
morning, following up on the report of the CANADA
WARBLER I phoned in yesterday. Friday morning, I'm going to
retract that report and say I made a mistake. That's all and good
birding.

Thursday, July 30, 2:12 p.m. Hi, it's 2 o'clock Thursday
afternoon. This is Andy Stepniewski, reporting from Wapato,
Washington. At 1300 today, I observed and heard a probable
immature male CANADA WARBLER in my yard. I was alerted
to this bird as I got out of my vehicle and heard a jumpy loud
song in the thickets a few feet away. It reminded me a little of a
CONNECTICUT WARBLER song, so I went for my binos to
get a look, and this is what I saw: a warbler appearing
somewhat larger than an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER,
which was also flitting in the vine maple and birch plantings a
few yards from the CANADA WARBLER. It was uniform
gray-green above, including its tail. There were no wingbars.
Underparts had a distinct yellow throat set off by a broad
smudgy gray breast band. Below this was yellow to the
undertail coverts, which were white. It had a conspicuous
eye-ring. The pattern of the underside of the tail, I didn't note.
The call note was a loud liquid chip, and the song had a loud
jumpy pattern. I have experience with CANADA WARBLERS
from Ridey(?) Mountain Park in Manitoba, Point Tealy(?), and
also in Michigan at Crane Creek. The number here is
509-877-6639 at home or 509-877-4446 at work. I'd be happy
to have anybody come by and check it out, but as of this
moment, it's not here. Good birding.

Thursday, July 30, 9:53 a.m. Hi, Tom Aversa, 782-7342,
reporting from a trip to Gray's Harbor yesterday. Really a lot of
shorebirds and gulls around, lot of birds moving. Nothing too
notable: a juvenile FRANKLIN'S GULL at Hoquiam Sewage
Ponds, also a MEW GULL there. Juvenile BONAPARTE'S also
there. And Bottle Beach had a lot of shorebirds -- probably at
least 1,200 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, a RED KNOT in
amongst them and a good assortment of birds in general.

Wednesday, July 29, 2:34 p.m. Hi, this is Steve Dang passing
on a message for Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. They will be closed
beginning Aug. 17 for approximately one month. To get updates
via a recorded message, call toll-free 1-877-606-4400. Or if you
want to speak to someone during business hours, call
360-753-9467 and ask for Sheila McCarten.

Wednesday, July 29, 9:29 a.m. This is Scott Hoskins,
206-789-8990. This morning at Montlake Fill, about 7:30, Bob
Vanden Bosch, Stuart McKay and I observed a BAIRD'S
SANDPIPER. Other species of note were four LONG-BILLED
DOWITCHERS, three LEAST SANDPIPERS, and one
WESTERN SANDPIPER. That's about it. Good luck and good
birding.

Tuesday, July 28, 7:11 a.m. Hello, this is Scott Atkins. I'm
reporting for the 25th of July. I'm a bit surprised by Dave
Swain's report a few back, because I was at the
TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRD site in Grant County that day
between about 11 and 12. This is at the Marlin Road ? 22 N.E.
site, at the meeting point of that road and Route 28 also at Mile
Marker 73 along Route 28, and between 11 and 12, I had no
trouble finding the TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRDS. I had about
50 of them. Two or three of these were adult males. The rest
were females and immatures. They were in a large roving flock
of blackbirds. The primary species was YELLOW-HEADED
BLACKBIRDS. There were also some RED-WINGS and a
BREWER'S or two in there. Also in this area, I had 32
AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS on the mudflats and several
shorebird species there as well. Also on the 27th of July at the
intersection of Highway 92 and 84th Street N.E. at the tree farm
office at Getchel station, the Texaco Getchel Station there, I had
an adult male BOBWHITE calling on territory. This is just
southwest of Granite Falls in Snohomish County. That's all. Bye
bye.

[Messages last checked 12:30 a.m., Sunday, August 2, 1998]
--
Jane Hadley
jhadle at halcyon.com
Seattle, WA