Greg wrote:

Don would argue with a signpost

GT
-----------------------------------------------------
Yeah, and he'd probably win.... At least we'd see an entertaining bit
of logic applied to "Yield" or "One Way"..... :-)

As far as bird posts.... I was out-of-town last week in beautiful down-
town Richmond BC. When I got back to Olympia, the flocks of
Golden-crowned Sparrows had vacated my yard. Where there'd
been about 40 a week ago Friday, there are none today. Have they
gone north on me?

Just as a note, I'd been doing a bit of afternoon mist-netting last week
and the GCSPs were *all* bulging with body fat - apparently ready for
the northward migration.

Also - had a question on the White-crowned Sparrows. The guidebooks
and keys all insist that the Puget Sound White-crown tends to have the
'orange-yellow' bill and the Gambel's W-c has a pinkish bill. All of my
references note that the Gambel's *may* occasionally have a yellowish-
orange bill.

The keys also note the yellow at the bend of the wing, as well as some
yellow wash on the underwings of the Puget Sound W-c that should be
absent on the Gambel's.

I caught a few White-crowns during the migration of the last couple of
weeks. Two of them were birds that I would have unhesitatingly called
"Z.l. pugetensis" due to measurements and the yellowish-orange bill;
*Except* the two birds had no yellow at the bend of the wings or in the
underwing.

Any thoughts or enlightenment out there?? I'll still report these to the
Bird Banding Lab as Pugetensis, unless I can be convinced otherwise.

Many thanks,

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net