Hi, all.

I was in Spokane for the state Democratic convention at the end of last week
and took the long way home, via Missoula, Golden, Kamloops, and Whistler.

The interior regions yielded lots of Red-winged and Brewer's Blackbirds, a
bunch of Yellow-headed Blackbirds (my first!), a Western Meadowlark (also a
first), Black-billed Magpies, an Osprey on a nest, a fishing Bald Eagle,
Ring-billed Gulls, and several Ravens.

Porteau Cove Provincial Marine Park, between Squamish and West Vancouver on
the B.C. coast, provided V-G and Barn Swallows, White-crowned Sparrows, a
Spotted Towhee, Robins, Starlings, Chickadees, a (Rufous?) Hummer, a far-off
Cormorant (Brandt's?), a gaggle of small, short-necked Canada Geese (sorry, I
don't know the subspecies very well), and a probable female Harlequin Duck.

All in all, a great trip, birdwise and otherwise (though the weather was
consistently awful!)--also took a chance to drum up support for my Cascadia
flag design (hope to have a website up for that soon).

Later,

Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA
NJPharris at aol.com