Last Sunday, January 16, I got good views of the Evergreen Valley shrike
(south of Yelm Highway between Lacey and Yelm Washington) and determined
that it is an adult Northern Shrike. I watched it eat a flying insect
of unknown identity. It's in pasture/hayfields and perches on shrubs and
trees that grow in fence rows between the open fields.

On January 14 I happened upon 3 Snow Geese accompanied by 115 Canada Geese
at Goodwin Lake in southeast Thurston County. All were white phase. Same day,
I counted six male Eurasian Wigeons with about 2,100 American Wigeons in
a pasture off Smith Prarie Road (also in southeast Thurston County).

I am trying to gain confidence in my identification of Canada Goose
subspecies. Maybe someday soon, I can share observations of subspecies
composition of the Canada Goose flocks in the south Puget Sound area.
For now, I am confident with some and puzzled about quite a few. The flock
with the Snow Geese was quite a hodge podge of variability but I didn't
take the time to try to figure out how many subspecies were represented
(still working on differentiating Lessers and Taverners). I saw a flock
of 20 geese near Neat Road (also southeast Thurston County) that looked to
me to be 18 Dusky Canada Geese with two smaller lighter forms thrown in for
good measure. I thought they might be Taverner's Canada geese at the time but
now I am wondering about whether they might have been Lessers. Think I'll
revisit some of those web sites with goose pictures.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife