Tweets,

My wife and I did a quick loop around the cheese factory clear-cut in Lacey
on Sunday. We saw plenty of Chipping Sparrows, yellowthroats,
Orange-crowned and MacGillivray's Warblers, tanagers, and the like. I was
listening for, but didn't hear any Vesper Sparrows, although at least two
were singing there earlier in the month. Lazuli Buntings don't appear to
have arrived yet either.

We spooked a pair of ravens from the trees at the entrance gate; they were
in the same area when we came back out. More unusual, I thought, were the
pair of Ospreys that flew up from the narrow strip of trees between the
northern edge of the clear-cut and the golf course. Do they think there's
fish in those water traps?

Also in that strip of trees we heard and soon located a male Blue Grouse,
hooting from a branch near the top of a fir. I wonder, do they call from
the trees until a female appears, and then drop down to do the full
tail-fanning, strutting display?

No sign of the redtail pair that seemed to have the northeast corner of the
cut staked out a week or so ago. They, or another pair just like them,
nested there up to 1997, but their nest blew down and I haven't seen them as
a pair the last two years. One of the pair is a large, striking
rufous-to-dark phase bird, while the other is a typical light phase bird.

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
mailto:kraige at oclc.org