Tweets,

I have enjoyed the last couple of weeks getting out and about to see
some of the more unusual sightings reported here and poking around to
see who is southbound.

King County firsts for me during the past two weeks were the Discovery
Park BLUE JAY and NORTHER MOCKINGBIRD, Juanita LEWIS' WOODPECKER, YELLOW
SHAFTED FLICKERS (Discovery Park, Lake Hills Greenbelt, and in my own
yard) and a CLARKS NUTCRACKER at Mt. Si.

There seemed to be a huge rush of FLICKERS of all kinds last week. At
one point I had 12 individuals in my yard at once. This prompted a lot
of head bobbing behavior and vocalizations from the birds. It seemed
that about 1 in 10 of the birds I saw was a YELLOW SHAFTED - what
brought them this far west?

Also a very large influx of STELLERS JAYS including 2 that I would
classify as inland race - very distinct white brow markings.

Also a nice movement of ROBINS, VARIED THRUSHES, and a couple of HERMIT
THRUSHES, 2 Townsends Solitairs, dribbles of Yellow, OC, BTG, and
Wilsons Warblers, literally hundreds of SONG SPARROWS. Winter sized
flocks of HOUSE and PURPLE FINCHES, a huge (100+) flock of EVENING
GROSBEAKS, 50 CEDAR WAXWINGS, and a 50+ flock of PINE SISKINS. Both GC
and RC KINGLETS are back in force. I had a large mixed flock of
KINGLETS, BUSHTITS, and TOWNSENDS WARBLERS come through on Saturday
along with a single ANNAS HUMMINGBIRD. BC CHICKADEES now outnumber my
resident breeding CB CHICKADEES who have been a joy to watch bathing and
drinking every afternoon during our long dry spell.

I'm getting lots of vocalizations in the late afternoon and early
evening from NORTHERN SAW WHET, BARRED, and WESTERN SCREECH OWLS. At
it's best it sounds like a bad jungle movie soundtrack. For two
afternoons in a row a pair of STELLARS JAYS discovered the SAW WHET who
lives in a dense fir tree in my back yard and harassed the poor little
guy to no end.

I've had two good kettles of TURKEY VULTURES one of 9 and one of 11.
Many, many COOPERS and SHARP SHINNED HAWKS are passing through (with
some hanging around).

In Issaquah on Sunday aftenoon I saw 3 REDHEADS, 2 HOODED MERGANSERS and
a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD in the small swamp opposite the Target store.

The regular winter influx of GULLS including WESTERN, CALIFORNIA,
RING-BILLED, MEW and the occasional casual visitors like FRANKLINS are
clogging the Cedar River outflow and Coulon Park at the south end of
Lake Washington. Thousands of these birds roost on top of the Boeing
Factory buildings every night, culminating in a mid-winter nightly fly
-in that numbers in the 10-20,000 range. Many of these birds "commute"
to the Cedar Hills landfill during the day.

Off now to enjoy more sun and feathered friends.

Good Birding!

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com

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