Friends,
A foggy, frigid morning turned into a quite nice sunny, but chilly,
afternoon. I hiked from my condo complex to the sea and surveyed many
birds of forest and Sound. The woodland birds included major flocks
of RUBY-CROWNED Kinglets with scattered individuals also all along the
trails. Another big winter flock included at least 200 COMMON Bushtits
with CHESTNUT-BACKED Chickadees and GOLDEN-CROWNED Kinglets tagging along.
This was one of those "birds-surround" experiences with great
opportunities to view closely the bright olive/intensely yellow-green
backs of some of the iridescently crowned Kinglets. Other scattered
species were WINTER Wrens, SONG Sparrows, SPOTTED Towhee and two gorgeous
male VARIED Thrushes and one ROBIN (where two weeks ago, there had been
hundreds!).

There was a lot of action in the shrubby areas and forest edge near the
Seahurst public beach. A largely Ruby-crowned Kinglet flock included
BROWN Creeper, BLACK-CAPPED & Chestnut-backed chickadees, a few Golden-
crowned kinglets and a TOWNSEND's Warbler. Near the public restroom
building, I saw a whole FLOCK of Townsend's Warblers. Most of these
(possibly a dozen or more!) were adult females/maybe first-year males, and
one bird was clearly the TOWNSEND'S-HERMIT hybrid with a mostly yellow
head, a thin black line through the eye, some faint spotting on the head
and a moderate upper breast/lower throat darkish flecking on the yellow.
Cannot assign gender to this bird without further observation, but got
enough of a view to suspect first-year male. These warblers were such
beauties; glorious plumage looked so bright and colorful!

At first the pickings on the water were slim and expected........a few
SURF Scoters, a very few WHITE-WINGED Scoters, a scattering of HORNED
Grebes, a single RED-NECKED Grebe, several COMMON & BARROW's Goldeneyes, a
couple of couples (or triple in one case) of BUFFLEHEADS, one COMMON Loon,
about 25 AMERICAN Wigeon, 2 DOUBLE-CRESTED Cormorants fishing and 2
not-morose GREAT BLUE Herons sunbathing in tree tops. An adult RED-TAILED
Hawk was working the thermals over the forest close by. And the gulls
were the local GLAUCOUS-WINGED yokels plus a MEW or two. And, of course,
there were many CROWS, some quite small, not much bigger than big Robins.

The sun was coming out; the fog was dissipating; the air was getting
balmy, and Vashon Island and the Olympics were becoming visibly
gawk-at-able. Some of the ferries were cast in sunbeams against the dark,
low, distant fogbanks... marvelous. I decided to loaf in the sunshine at
a picnic table and savor a commercial package of peanut butter 'n cheese
crackers. Under these conditions such mundane fare becomes a gourmet
snack (wish I'd brought TWO packages of crackers and even some of the
Godiva chocolates my sister sent for Christmas.....winter birding does
make one hungry!)

At any rate, whilst munching and casually binoc-scanning the shores
outward, birds started appearing out of no-where. It became "Looney",
literally! Wow, several more Common Loons appeared; then two juvenile
RED-THROATED Loons and at least 10 PACIFIC Loons all within fairly easy
binoc distance off the Seahurst public beach area. There was then a
single BLACK Scoter keeping to itself beyond the other scoters. A MERLIN
was sweeping up the shoreline right past my snack spot toward the north.
I could not see what it might be hunting.........maybe shorebirds just
beyond my range of sight. As I left the Seahurst beach, a group of RED-
BREASTED Mergansers flew in to roost and feed in the water close to the
edge of the receding tide.

Trekking back on the trail near my condo, I added about 20 DARK-EYED
Juncoes (all the Oregon hooded morph), a NORTHERN Flicker, a STELLER's
Jay, and 2 'mystery' birds. One of these, I am fairly certain to be a
PURPLE Finch........much less common here than the House Finch.

The other bird was also with the Junco bunch, but its 'jizz' said
Longspur. I know from past experience that to confidently ID a Longspur,
more than just the tail pattern is necessary. In this case, it is a
possible, but not a definite, Chestnut-Collared Longspur, a glimpse of a
brownish bird with a good look at pattern of dark and light on a spread
tail. [Could also be a Junco with damaged or odd morphological
distribution of white on the tail.] For some reason, Longspurs in shrubs
seem much shyer to view and less vocal than are the huge flocks of them
out on open grasslands. They aren't very 'pishable.' At least, that has
been my field experience with them in their wintering areas in SE Arizona
and also viewing them as fall migrants in central Oregon in shrubby
pastures. So, has anyone else seen what-might-be Longspurs in the King
County-Puget Sound area recently? I seem to recall a report of one at the
Montlake Fill in the past few years, maybe this year, also?

Cheers and have a wonderful new century beginning (well, depending on how
you count years. As I mentioned to a friend exasperated by the hoopla
over 2000 as the beginning of the 3rd Millennium........no matter how
accurately anybody counts, the party celebrating Jan 01, 2000 is STILL
going to be a lot bigger than the New Year's Party for Jan 01, 2001.)

When in Rome,

Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu U of WA & Burien-Seahurst Park, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-

"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities." -Pogo-