Dear tweets,

A day's birding along the White River east of Enumclaw, with the company of
Brenda Senturia in the afternoon, brought lots of migrants arrived on
territory or passing through. I went in the Weyerhaeuser Grass Mountain
Gate on the north side of SR410 at 8:00 and birded the lower elevations for
an hour and a half, then headed upslope not far before finding the
landscape covered with a night's fresh snow. Toward 10:00 a dark cloud
moved in and for the next hour hail poured forth, blurring vision, and
raising an incredible din on the car roof. One raven flew through the
stuff. I worked my way back downslope, the hail abated, birds came back
out. And then it started to snow--the big, wet, heavy kind that packs
great snowballs. A mixed flock of chickadees, kinglets, and warblers
worked its way across an alder grove. Among them, Black-throated Gray and
Townsend's Warblers were singing. Snow fell harder and harder, obscuring
them. But the more it snowed, the more they sang, as if to compensate for
no longer seeing them. White snowstreaks diced bare branches into flying
black confetti; rising warbler voices, repeating, laced them together
again. Spring in western Washington--ain't it grand?

In the afternoon we birded on the other side of the highway, walking down
to the river at one point. No more snow or hail, rain once in a while, one
nice sunbreak. Temperatures ranged between 32 and 39 in the morning, and
38 and 44 in the afternoon.

Across the day, we saw large numbers of ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, mostly
singing; a few WILSON'S WARBLERS including two singing males, a silent
pair of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS looking furtively territorial (the big push
of these went through some time ago), a few COMMON YELLOWTHROATS on
territory, lots of BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS and a few TOWNSEND'S, but
no MacGillivray's or Yellows. PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS were singing here
and there in the right kinds of places, but you would not say that the
woods were thick with them. WINTER WRENS must be in peak song this week.
There was one every hundred feet. One HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER seeming rather
out-of-place I took to be a migrant. Road edges, small clearings, and
brushy slopes harbored high numbers of HERMIT THRUSHES, all silent except
for an alarm call or two. This area is well below their nesting habitat.
Only two singing SWAINSON'S THRUSHES in an area that will have them by the
dozens by the end of the month were my first for the year. We saw more
TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRES by far than I have ever seen on a single day in
Washington: about 20. They foraged in loose pairs and groups of three and
four. Brenda heard one sing. VARIED THRUSHES were in full song
everywhere, and we heard a few PURPLE FINCHES too. I saw and heard my
first WARBLING VIREOS of the year (2). RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS were still in
winter flocks, singing now and then; looks like they're starting up the
valleys. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS are down near the river, just waiting to
move uphill to the clearcuts.

Owling had been in the plans but got substituted for by thawing out. But
we're going out again tomorrow. Willow Flycatchers and Red-eyed Vireos not
anticipated. But then, neither are Snow Buntings.

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington