My quest for Purple Martin and White-tailed Kite went unanswered
today, but I did get to see 2 Northern Harrier juvies hunting,
sometimes together, sometimes separately...

Date: August 12, 2001
Location: Mima Mounds Natural Area, Thurston County, Washington

Temperature: 30 degrees celsius
Wind direction: NW
Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h gusting to 6-11 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 30%
Precipitation: none

I was here from 1710 to 1920 and spent most (1.3 hr) of that time atop
a centrally located mound with a tall, handily shaped Douglas-fir
stump which serves admirably as a "shooting bench" for my rifle
stock-mounted telescope. Today it was hot, dry, and quiet here -- no
one was at the adjacent rifle range, and only one person at the model
aircraft field. Few birds were ever heard, but Grasshopper chirping
was a common sound. In addition to the birds noted in the census, I
saw ~15 swallows flycatching above the tree line of mature Douglas-fir
trees ~0.75 mile to the NW; given the distance and their relative size
at 20X, I assume they were Purple Martin but cannot certain enough to
place them in the census.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Northern Harrier 2 [1]
Red-tailed Hawk 1 [2]
Northern Flicker 1 [3]
Black-capped Chickadee 5 [4]
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 [5]
American Robin 1

Footnotes:

[1] Both juveniles -- the low sun made the red-rufous breast and
belly obvious when they were in flight hunting over the prairie.
[2] In the selective cut Douglas-fir stand east of the preserve.
[3] Heard in the Douglas-fir stand.
[4] Heard in the Douglas-fir stand.
[5] Heard in the Douglas-fir stand.

Total number of species seen: 6

Census archived at http://birdnotes.net


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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