Thanks to Ruth Sullivan for pointing out what a great spot Black Lake Meadows
(Tumwater) is. As it turns out, it is just a couple of miles from my house.
I took my dad out there yesterday to see what we could see. It was already
the middle of the afternoon, so there weren't too many species around; but we
did sight one each of GREEN and GREAT BLUE HERONs, a PIED-BILLED GREBE, a
bunch of MALLARDS, a male WOOD DUCK, a big crowd of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS,
and an incredible display of SWALLOWS--mostly TREE but with a few
VIOLET-GREEN, CLIFF, and BARN mixed in, along with a few VAUX'S SWIFTS.

And this was just at the outer pond, as the trail to the lake was closed off
for nesting season. I can't wait to go back!

We also stumbled across a small LIZARD, about 6 in./15 cm long, medium brown
with dark brown markings on the back, with fairly short legs and overlapping
scales. Looked like some kind of small skink to me. Can anyone tell me what
kind this was? I didn't even know we had lizards in western WA.

Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA
NJPharris at aol.com