Hi Tweets,

I visited my friend in Yakima this weekend. Didn't do any serious
birding, but here's what we saw. He never realized he had so much in
only his backyard.

His basic backyard bird is the Oregon Junco. Also cruising through his
back yard this morning were three CALIFORNIA QUAIL, some very small light
colored sparrow-ish birds, and two NORTHERN FLICKERS-Red Shafted variety.
From his livingroom window I could see a raptor soaring in the north.
Several other little "tweety" birds flittered in and out of his walnut
tree so quickly I couldn't get a good look at them. And to add to the
living room birding session, a couple of "tweety" birds collided with his
big picture window, leaving feathers stuck to the glass. The birds flew
into the bushes next door. Dunno what happened to them...

We also headed out to the canyon to poke around. Didn't see much at all,
except two RED TAILED HAWKS soaring over the Yakima River. We must have
disturbed their nest, because as we approached the tallest tree we heard
a screach and flapping of wings and the two hawks were flying out of the
tree. On the ground we spied fresh ELK tracks, followed them in hopes
we'd find the elk.

We also spied some SWALLOWS, type unknown. Anybody know what sort of
swallows swoop about the banks of the Yakima River in the canyon?

We also spied a GREAT BLUE HERON rookery on the west side of I-82. Not
far from the GBH rookery, on the other side of the freeway were some old
electirc power lines. One pole had what could be nothing but a NEST of
some kind. Was this a GBH nest or some other bird's nest?

Also spied in our brief foray were two BALD EAGLES, one immature and
brown all over and the other was mature.

But the highlight of my vist were the MAGPIES! They are simply
beautiful!
Black, white, blue and green feathers flashing by along side the freeway,
those beauties were cruising for road kill!

My friend told me how, as a boy in Rupert, Idaho, he and his friends
would capture young magpies and make pets out of them. He also told me
they would sometimes mimmic human speech and become quite pesky.

Also while in Yakima I spied some gulls.......groan. They were slaty
grey on the wings, and had BLACK wing tips.....no sign of white spots on
their black wing tips. Could these have been California Gulls? I didn't
get very close, but they seemed smaller than the "mongrel golf course
gulls" we have here on this side of the mountains.

Between E'burg and CleElum sitting on a tall post next to a pond was a
large raptor. This bird was a bit slender, and had a very white breast.
The rest of its feathers were light to medium grey. Was this an OSPRY?

I am now enamored by magpies!

Lydia In Kent


Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA
lydia at wizards.net
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