Subject: Spring Arrivals, Nesting, and Jerry's Feather
Date: Apr 27 08:57:19 2000
From: Rob Conway - robin_birder at hotmail.com


Tweets,

As others have noted there has been a big influx of ORANGE CROWNED WARBLERS
over the last several days. I saw a flock of 50-60 moving through
Bellefields Office Park in Bellevue yesterday. I had a single male WILSON'S
WARBLER in my yard on Saturday. There was an AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN on Lake
Washington near the Barbee Mill between Renton and Bellevue on Saturday
morning, gone when I returned in the afternoon. There were two BLACK TERNS
along the Duwamish waterway across from Boeing Field early on Sunday.
EVENING GROSBEAKS are showing up almost everywhere I look, feeding on Big
Leaf Maple blossoms.

I had a BAND TAILED PIGEON doing his floppy-flying mating dance in the yard
yesterday afternoon, the lady pigeon must have been impressed as she was
very vocal. The local PILEATED WOODPECKER pair is still trying to pick out
a tree - I've seen them at four snags in the last 3 days poking about and
checking out holes. I have BEWICK'S WREN, SONG SPARROW, CB and BC
CHICKADEES, RB NUTHATCHES and ROBINS all in the nesting process on my little
half acre - and NO STARLINGS!!! I've also had both BARRED and WESTERN
SCREECH OWLS calling during the early evening all around the neighborhood.

I finally got to run through my e-mail and looked at the picture of the
feather Jerry Converse had posted. Looks like the Rio Grande subspecies of
Wild Turkey. I used to raise lots and lots of wild turkeys as a kid and
this feather was a good match for feathers from the mid-back and upper wing
area - only caveat is there wasn't a size associated with the feather in
Jerry's picture.

I leave for a stint on the East Coast on Monday, where I hope to catch
migrants in Central Park and maybe Cape May. Boston two weeks from now, so
I may get a chance for more birding there.

Good Birding to All,

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_birder at hotmail.com



________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com