Hi, Tweeters and Jim! Today (December 30) my dad and I went birding in the
Kent Valley for a pre-dry run for our CBC on January 2. First stop, the
Interurban Trail! When we got there, we saw a few RED-TAILED HAWKS and a
NORTHERN HARRIER (no bands seen). We walked only part of the trail. There we
stopped and looked for some birds. We saw a few WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, with
some GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS. After about 10 minutes of no other birds, all
of a sudden over 50 AMERICAN PIPITS flew out of the short grass, then
vanished back into it! They had been there the whole time and I never saw
them! Hopefully they'll stick around for the CBC! Someone drove up and came
out of the car. It was Roger Orness, our CBC leader. He told us that there
had been some Snow Geese down at the Boeing Space Center. He gave us
directions (see below if you would like to go see) and we walked quickly to
the truck. But before we left, we took a look at a hawk up in the tree. It
turned out to be a dark morph "HARLAN'S" RED-TAILED HAWK! This was a first
for both of us. It was just beautiful! Dark, dark brown all over with a few
white streaks on breast. Could someone tell me how rare they are in the Kent
Valley? We drove to the place he said the Geese were, and I almost passed
them by for some white blobs out is a baseball field, but we turned around
and found that they were SNOW GEESE, a life bird for both of us, and I
believe a rare bird for the Kent Valley! We took long looks and took a
picture. There were 12 in all, 9 adults and 3 imm, but all white morph. After
that, we headed home at only 11:30. That's all! Have a Happy New Year,
Century, and Millennium!

The Snow Geese can be seen from off of West Valley Highway at 196th, out in a
Baseball Field on the North end of the Boeing Space Center.

<A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/birdking88/index.html">Check out my New
Birding Website!</A>

Birdking88 at aol.com
Charlie W. Wright
Sumner, WA
Age 11