Subject: Amazing yard bird start to 1999
Date: Jan 8 22:22:04 1999
From: Alan Bauer - alan_bauer at email.msn.com


Hello folks,

So I'm a little slow in posting this, but it's still amazing enough to me I
need to share it. Within the first 48 hours of 1999 my yard list increased
by two while I wasn't hardly even paying attention! New Years day around
9:00am, after having my first bird of the year be a Norther Flicker at the
feeder at 7:35am as I walked down the stairs, a beautiful male BELTED
KINGFISHER came blasting down the mountainside behind us, then stopped in
the ravine area along the west side of our 5 acres, jumped to a dead hemlock
snag just north of of our driveway, and then continued on down toward the
Snoqualmie Valley below us. I could hear him coming for a good 30 seconds
before he came right to me on our property. He may have been up the woods
looking for some frogs or salamanders for food along the creek in the ravine
area due to many still muddy flooded out areas in the valley below us? Each
time the Snoqualmie River floods, we get a huge change in the bird groupings
at our place, just about 1.2 miles up from the river channel itself.

The second new bird for the property was seen the next afternoon while
clearing up a tree that came down during the snow. I had two BROWN CREEPERS
doing their cute run up/fly back down the tree trunk antics in a Western Red
Cedar tree. Very nice at only 15' away and of course the camera was in the
basement of the house...

Keep on birding...
Alan L. Bauer
Fall City, WA
alan_bauer at msn.com