The Washington BirdBox is a voice mailbox sponsored by the Washington
Ornithological Society. To leave a report about a notable sighting or
to listen to the most recent reports from other birders, call
(425)454-2662 and follow the prompts.
Transcribed by Franny Drobny, Seattle, Washington,
fdrobny at cairncross.com, phone (206) 286-1695 evenings. Please contact
me by e-mail if you have any corrections, comments, or questions.
Mailbox previously checked by Franny Drobny on Monday, March 23, 1998,
at 3:50 p.m.

March 27, 1998, Friday, 5:10 p.m. Hi, this is Steven Mlodinow.
Yesterday on my way up to have my eyes operated on, to be rid of
contacts, we stopped at the Green Road pond north of Sedro Wooley. The
female TUFTED DUCK was still there, along with a nice number of other
Aythya ducks for comparison. To get to this pond, get off at Cook Road,
go east to Green Road, make a left, and go toward Green Road ends in a
T-intersection. The pond is obvious and on your right. Also, on the
way back today, amazingly we fully sighted, we saw an OSPREY over the
Everett Sewage Ponds, for my first returning bird of the spring. That's
it. Good luck and good birding.

March 27, 1998, Friday, 7:10 p.m. Rhane Kirkham, my phone number is
(253) 941-7916. On Thursday, March 26 and Friday, March 27, my niece,
who is also a birder, saw a SMEW, swimming with some GOLDENEYES and
GREBES at the western end of Ruston Way in Tacoma, just before it goes
into a tunnel on its way to Pt. Defiance. It might been seen anywhere
along Ruston Way, but both times we saw it, it was towards the end.
That's all. Thanks.

March 28, 1998, Saturday, 2:42 p.m. Hi, this is Steve Mlodinow
reporting from Tacoma. Dennis Duffy, Ted Peterson and I went down to
look for the purported SMEW today. We did find an interesting bird at
the location. It appears to be an aberrant COMMON GOLDENEYE with a
mostly white head. Some green is present along the crown and on the
back of the head. The rest of the bird, however, is pretty-much COMMON
GOLDENEYE. It looks, at first glance, somewhat SMEW-like, but, indeed,
it is not a SMEW. So that's it. Good luck and good birding.

March 28, 1998, Saturday, 3:28 p.m. Hello, this is Scott Atkinson. I
found the TUFTED DUCK this morning, March 28, just after dawn up at the
Green Road pond as previously described. Also present, a COMMON
YELLOWTHROAT and a CLIFF SWALLOW, both the first year that I've had.
Then I had the PRAIRIE FALCON out on the West 90. The bird was perched
on a telephone pole just north of the bend in the road. I also had a
couple of HARLAN'S type RED-TAILED HAWKS in this area. One of them with
a pure red tail and the odd-balled RED-TAILED HAWK that is distinctly
barred and diamond-spotted on the breast, is still present. I would be
interested in other people's opinions as to the subspecies of this bird.
The best bird of the day: an adult SLATY-BACKED GULL at Lion's Park on
Riverside Road, just north of old downtown Mt. Vernon. The bird was in
with a large GULL flock, including five species on the beach, right
along the Skagit River that is visible just opposite, on the other side,
opposite the park, rather. I did see the white string of pearls as the
bird took short flights. Watch for the bird, it is clearly much darker
than any of the hybrids in the area. Also, later on, I had the first
Pugetensis type WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW down at the Skagit Game Range.
That's all. Good birding.

March 30, 1998, Monday, 7:26 a.m. Hello, this is Wayne Weber, phoning
from Delta, B.C., (604) 597-7201, with a few reports of returning
migrants and other birds from March 27 and 28 in the vicinity of
Wenatchee and points to the east. On March 27, a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
was at Wenatchee Confluence State Park and the next day an OSPREY was
seen there, as well. On March 27 and 28, had VESPER SPARROWS in several
localities in the vicinity of Waterville and St. Andrews. This seems to
be a few days earlier than usual. The rest of the sightings are all for
the 28th. A CASSIN'S FINCH was singing from Badger Mountain, south of
Waterville. In Moses Coulee, on the Moses Coulee Road, was seen about 4
miles south of U.S. Hwy. 2, I had a least 8 WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS, 3
newly returned LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES, including a pair together, and a
couple of PRAIRIE FALCON. At Atkins Lake on U.S. Hwy. 2, a short
distance west of Coulee City, there were large numbers of waterfowl, a
couple of thousand NORTHERN PINTAIL. Unusual birds there included a
male EURASIAN WIGEON in with about 600 AMERICAN WIGEON and 12
WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, in with about 250 TUNDRA SWANS and 500 or 600
LESSER CANADA GEESE. The WHITE-FRONTED GEESE were barely a 100 yards
from the highway. Finally, near St. Andrews just at dusk, I heard a
LONG-EARED OWL calling from a hedgerow. That's it for now.

This transcription completed on Monday, March 30, 1998, at 11:30 a.m.