Listers:

Birding on a day like today was an interesting experience.
At 0830 at Ft Columbia in Pacific County WA there were two SPOTTED
SANDPIPERS and one WANDERING TATTLER.

At 1230 hrs I attempted the NJCR in driving rain and sand. Among the gulls
and Caspians parked in the "lee" of the jetty (some lee!) there were 5
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES and at least 10 HEERMAN'S GULLS...I didn't bother
trying to count in any serious way because of the tears in my eyes.

At 1700 hrs I stopped at SJCR for all of 10 minutes and saw 7 SHORT-BILLED
DOWITCHERS, an uncounted number of WESA and LESA, about 10 SESA, one GREATER
YELLOWLEGS, one PECTORAL SANDPIPER, and 7 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS. Holding
the binocs steady was difficult against the wind. As I was leaving the
parking lot, I glimpsed a dark bird that acted like a PEREGRINE FALCON come
in low over the pines and drop into the waters edge sedges at the distant
ponds -- flushing out a flock of peeps, but I couldn't make it reappear.

On the way home I stopped by the Lewis and Clark shorebird ponds (a puddle
still) to note about 25 peeps, a mix of LESA/WESA. Some motion caught my
eye -- turned out to be a juvenile bullfrog hopping back into the puddle
with something in its mouth. It couldn't sink however because the something
was buoyant. Capture of the culprit revealed the prey to be a SAVANNAH
SPARROW only about 1.0 cm shorter than the bullfrog (about 14 cm) -- its
head was partially digested and was all the frog had managed to swallow.
Rather disturbing.

Lee Cain
Summer: lcain at seasurf.net
School: lcain at astoria.k12.or.us
Instructor, Aquatic Biology/Integrated Science
Astoria High School