Tweeters,

Pulled off the main road along the Black River south of Littlerock,
Washington yesterday and there, in front of the car about 10 meters
was a shrike. It flew back and forth from the ground and a short
ornamental tree. My binoculars had been in my truck all night
and they were cold, so totally fogged as to be useless. Bummer.

Heard a rail. Sounded closest to one of the background vocalizations
in the Sora track on "Bird Songs of the Pacific States". However,
I'll withold rail identification based on vocalizations until I
get more experience. The rail vocalization I hear most often is
the one I heard yesterday and I usually hear it where I know
Virginia Rails to be common. However, there is nothing close in
the Virginia Rail recording on "Bird Songs of the Pacific States",
only the Sora recording has a similar descending, raspy call.

Found the first Red-legged Frog egg masses of the season today,
also in a wetland associated with the Black River drainage, north
of Littlerock though.

Red-winged Blackbirds have been real noisy and flamboyent the last
two days.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington