Wow! What a morning for nature watching. I woke up with the sun this
morning (always better than waking up to the blaring alarm), and did some
birding in my backyard.

Here's my "inventory:"

1. Two female roufous hummingbirds at one (of my three) hummingbird
feeders.
2. The usual assortment of Varied thrushes, Spotted Towhees, nuthatches,
wrens, robins, Stellar's Jays, and chickadees at my two feeding stations.
3. I saw my resident chipmunks and mini-squirrels at the suet feeder
(very cute, even though they steal the suet blocks).
4. I saw a herd of deer at Marymoor park on the ride in. Totally
awesome!

But here's the kicker!

5. I saw TWO (!!!) Red-breasted Sapsuckers in my backyard! A mated pair!
This is really incredible. The male is in FULL breeding plummage, and
he's /gorgeous./ The female got chased off by a Pileated Woodpecker, so
I didn't get a very good look at her. But the male gave me a NICE view
through my binocs. Woo hoo! (These birds are notoriously shy).

The other day I had a mated pair of Pileateds on one of the snags in my
front yard. It was very amusing to watch them. I love my property. :-)

-Jacki Bricker
Woodinville, Washington