Hi Tweets,

Thought I'd pass along a couple of bird sightings that I
heard about today. Most recent was the male Mt. Bluebird seen
Monday at the Kent Ponds. It was seen by Roger Orness and Jack
Bettesworth who were there to try to catch and band a male Kestrel
which has moved into the area. They saw the bluebird sitting on
the snag which has the Kestrel box on it, at the Nw corner of the
ponds. It flew from there towards the woodlot just East and then
along the West side of the ponds where it foraged from low perches.
On Saturday when Roger was leading a field trip in the
Green River valley to view raptors some of the people, including
Michele herzberg of Rainier Audubon, saw a Say's Phoebe along
Frager Road, just North of 212th. Frager Road parallels the Green
River on its West bank, and is located West of the Kent Boeing
plant.
Roger also informs me that the Ross' Goose was seen in the
field at the corner of 212th and W. Valley Hwy within the last
few days. As others have noticed there are other white geese in
the area as well, but these domestics are larger that the Ross'.
They tend to be as large as, or larger even, than the Canadas
and at least one of them has a gray wash on the body which the
Ross' does not have. The Ross' is a *petite* goose, bigger than
a Mallard, but smaller than the valley Canadas. Be sure and check
the head shape and bill marking as well; these are shown well
in the National Geo, guide and others. By the way, I haven't
seen any "Cackling" Canadas in the Green River valley all Winter.
They do not normally winter here. The Canadas do vary in size
but all the ones I've seen in the Kent Ponds area (since the
Cacklers left around November) are of the medium to large size.

Jim
Jim Flynn
Renton, WA
bf519 at scn.org