I went home for Mothers' Day last Sunday and got a chance to go birding in
my neighborhood while the rest of the family was off doing other stuff. A
great experience, and one I need to repeat more often.

First, a quick note about Olympia geography for those of you who might
not be familiar with it. Olympia, WA, sits at the southern end of Puget
Sound, which is basically a large fjord carved out by glaciers during the
last ice age. As the glacier began to melt, large chunks of it would fall
off the end, and as these melted, they created small (but sometimes
quite deep) lakes (called "pothole lakes") in large depressions in the
ground. There are several of these in my heighborhood, hidden in this old
residential area. Often a street will simply dead-end, and the ground
will drop away into one of these bowl-shaped valleys.

These valleys are too steep and muddy to build on (at least so far :-S),
and several of them have been turned into parks. A couple of these are
within about four blocks of my house, so I just thought I'd poke around
for a couple of hours and see what I could find.

On the way over I looked up just in time to catch a gorgeous Great Blue
Heron flying overhead. Other highlights included several Red-winged
Blackbirds calling among the reeds at one of the lakes, a spectacular male
Wood Duck (lifer in the wild), a Red-Breasted Sapsucker (another lifer),
and an impressive number of Spotted Towhees. On the way back I was
treated to an air show by about a hundred Violet-green Swallows and Vaux's
Swifts, flying maybe 20 feet off the ground and affording good views with
my binocs, and a small flock of Buffleheads.

Species encountered (lifers in CAPS):

Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
WOOD DUCK Aix sponsa
Bufflehead Bucephala albeola
Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens
Rock Dove Columba livia
Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER Sphyrapicus ruber
Vaux's Swift Chaetura vauxi
Violet-green Swallow Tachycineta thalassina
Steller's Jay Cyanocitta stelleri
Crow Corvus sp.
Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapilla
Chestnut-backed Chickadee P. rufescens
Red-breasted Nuthatch Sitta canadensis
Bewick's Wren Thryomanes bewickii
American Robin Turdus migratorius
Wilson's Warbler Wilsonia pusilla
Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Spotted Towhee Pipilo maculatus
Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia
Pine Siskin (heard) Carduelis pinus
House Finch (heard) Carpodacus mexicanus
House Sparrow Passer domesticus

25 species in 3 hours within four blocks of my own house--not bad for a
beginner, I think :-).

In the past I have also seen Band-tailed Pigeons, Red-tailed Hawks, and a
Marsh Wren in this area.

It is interesting to note the differences between the Olympia and PLU
(Tacoma) avifaunas, despite their being fairly similar, suburban areas
separated by only 30 miles (50 km).

The Olympia parks, for instance, are absolutely loaded with Spotted
Towhees and Song Sparrows, neither of which have I ever observed at PLU or
in the surrounding neighborhood. There are also far more Steller's Jays
here than in Tacoma.

PLU, on the other hand, is full of Northern Flickers and Oregon Juncos,
and appears to be richer in warblers and Zonotrichia sparrows as well.

Perhaps the differences are due to the presence of open water nearby in
Olympia?

Nick Pharris
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447
(253)535-7045
pharrinj at plu.edu