Tweets all,

Having missed all the excitement last summer following Dave Beaudette's
discovery of the Tricolored Blackbird colony at Wilson Creek east of Soap
Lake (see George Gerdts' posting of last Sunday, April 25, for detailed
directions), being in Mexico (tough luck), I snuck off from work a bit early
and dashed to the spot, arriving late Friday afternoon, about 6 PM. George's
directions to the feedlot/pasture east of the "peaceful" town of Wilson
Creek are fine, just note that the last short stretch of road (past where
you are told NOT to cross the railroad tracks -- which lead into the
rancher's yard) is quite rough and very dusty dirt (gravelled, but still
very dusty to that point from town). I stayed outside the fence (which is
tight barbed wire and not to be trifled with) and so got no closer that ca.
100 feet to the mixed blackbird flock (totalling ca. 200 birds in several
smaller bunches), so my feeble attempts at photography will show nothing
much. I was primed to look for a bright WHITE epaulette in flight (which had
been my distinct impression some years ago when I visited the Portland
airport site in Oregon). However, no such luck. All the white epaulettes
belonged to the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. There were also lots of cowbirds,
male and female; male and female Yellowheads (have you ever noticed that
Yellow-headed Blackbird males and females have pretty yellow VENTS? Not very
romantic but a nice signalling device when they stick their tails up in the
air to fend off intruders in their feeding space). Also lots of
Red-winged/Tricolored males, adult and otherwise, and females. MANY males
showed only a narrow whitish border to the epaulette while feeding! Only
after some patient stalking could one detect the subtle yellowish wash to
the whitish border, making them, I presume Red-wings. Many of these males
seemed still in the process of having their alternate plumage (is that an
appropriate use of that term here?) "smoothed" out by wearing off the rusty
margins of the fresh alternate plumage. Most of the females were
card-carrying Red-wings, I would judge, but there were quite a number of
sooty-bellied somewhat streaky breasted and backed Red-wing type individuals
which I would have liked to call female Tricolored except that their heads
were also all sooty, with no pale supercilium. They also had no red on the
shoulder that I could detect. So I decided they were probably immatures,
probably Red-wings.

Finally, after may 20 minutes of frustration (beautify sunny evening, sun to
the right, no wind, so no excuses), I spotted a male with a clean white
epaulette margin which eventually raised it's shoulder patch and confronted
a nearby Red-winged in a little agonistic dance. Red of the epaulette was
distinctly (though hardly "much") darker than that of the Red-wings there.
I'd say it was "vermillion" rather than "scarlet" or, better, "crimson" for
the Red-wingeds. I needed a Munsell Color Chart to define the difference
properly. It was hard to get a good look at either the glossines of the
plumage -- which the Audubon Master Guide says is more glossy in the
Tricolored than in the Red-winged (of course, the National Geo guide
describes both as "glossy black males") or the shape of the bill. I THINK
the Tricolored I had under consideration was a shade more purplish glossy
that the Red-wings, which seemed more velvety, and I THINK the bill of the
Tricolored was marginally thinner and straighter than the Red-wingeds. And
the bird itself seemed a trifle more slender than the Red-wingeds. I noted
these features before I reviewed my library, so probably was not deluding
myself (more than usual).

I later found one more male, at least as distinct as the first and a bit
closer and a female that combined unstreaked sooty belly and undertail with
a pale supercilium and no apparent red on the shoulder.

I suspect that the birds in this flock feeding in the pasture are perhaps
not all quite in peak form for nesting yet. I wasn't able to approach the
water's edge to check on territorial birds (no one was near to grant
permission to go through a gate that allowed access around the east end of
the pasture to the water along this flooded stretch of Upper Crab Creek),
but it is possible that on territory the epaulette contrast will be more
dramatic than among birds crouched low to the ground, many still in
transitional plumage states.

Neither George nor I could get recognizable photos and George is doubtful
that despite the hordes who saw the birds last year anyone got decent
pictures. Is that true? Seems in this case definitive "killer" full-frame
action photos would be a boon.

For what it's worth, en route home Saturday I took a misdirected detour to
Jameson Lake's north end out of Mansfield (after enjoying 6 displaying male
Sage Grouses on the Leahy Junction lek -- and my first Grasshopper Sparrows
of the season), and there was a possible Tri-colored in a pasture flock
there also, but before I could set up my scope the flock decamped out of
sight. Who knows. In any case, I think extreme caution is advisable to make
sure we're really dealing with Tricolored Blackbirds and not one of the
seeming ubiquitous Pseudo-Tricolored look-alikes.

Gene Hunn.