Hello Tweets,

Today in birded in Thurston Co. starting at the Weir Prairie north of
Rainier, where the singing LEAST FLYCATCHER reported by Bill Tweit was
still present at the same location as previously mentioned and reported on
the WA Birdbox on 6-8 and 6-10(Craig Kemper). The wind was quite strong
during my visit of this area between 7:30am -10:15am, but the bird was
singing and actively "flycatching" in the oak grove. I explored the
remainder of the prairie to the east, where I observed an adult
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW singing about a 1/2 mile north of 123rd(Military Rd.)
on the central dirt road through the Weir Prairie, just east of 3 yellow
concrete blocks stacked together on the left side of the road going NORTH
in thick vegetation surrounded by Scotch Broom. A bluebird house is located
immediately south of this area. During my visit a hunting club was present
training dogs, using CHUKARS and HUNGARIAN PARTRIDGES, which will(the
hunting club) be present through the weekend on the prairie, which are
releasing the birds throughout the prairie for practice hunting
dog(pointers)training, SO BE AWARE, if you plan to bird the open prairie.
Other notable species observed during my visit include: 4-5 NORTHERN
BOBWHITES, 6 W.BLUEBIRDS, 4 VESPER SPARROWS, 7 W.MEADOWLARKS and good
numbers of HOUSE WRENS and CHIPPING SPARROWS. I birded Nisqually NWR from
11am-1:45pm, where the only highlight was 3 W.PHALOROPES(2 females and 1
male) in a nearly dried pond along the south east-west trail.

Good Birding,

Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net