I hope this is a joke. It really doesn't matter how large or small the
bird is, people who have been birding for a while will know that trying to
find every bird in an area is impossible, yes even its a swan or a falcon.
Heck even on well covered CBC's I know that every waterfowl isn't counted,
let alone sparrows. The area the Whopper's were in and Eastern WA is as a
rule underbirded (heck its not Seattle) so to surmise that the whooper's
should be found again is hopeful but not guaranteed. As for the Kestrel it
was seen about a week ago over on Sunset, has there been proof that it has
actually left the flats? I would like to see boh positive and negative
reports on the status of the Kestrel and yes the Dotterel. I suspect both
are still around.

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood


On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, D Marven wrote:

> Just recently two really rare species were seen in our area, Whooper
> Swan and Eurasian Kestrel both have gone and vanished into thin air.
> Does this show how lacking we are at finding rare birds, the Kestrel I
> can accept it's small but the Whooper Swans how can we lose these, where
> could they have gone. I know we found them once but why not twice are
> we not looking properly, are we that bad that we could let these birds
> disappear. Maybe there's another answer the Whooper's went back to their
> waterfowl collection home in Kamloops anf the Eurasian Kestrel went back
> to its cage with it's falconer handler in Washington state? I wonder
>
> Derrick Marven
> Duncan B.C.
> marven at home.com
>