Sounds awfully like a Northern Mockingbird, but as Hugh suggests, an
on-site ID would be a good idea (a bird in the bush may only be worth
half of one in hand, but it's worth dozens of birds in cyberspace).
Habitual tail pumping wouldn't fit very well, but a couple pumps here
or there wouldn't mean much, and the rest seems just right.

The "wagging" tail brings a certain genus to mind, but since none of them
seem to match the description as well as NOMO, I'll keep my nickel on my
first guess.

Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA



-----Original Message-----
From: Hughbirder at aol.com [mailto:Hughbirder at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 1:58 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Unidentified bird in Sequim


I had a telephone call today from a Joyce Carlson, her phone no. is
360-681-3860, in Sequim regarding a bird she can't identify. She said it was
light gray head and body, black wings and tail, tail had white edges and
tips. It has a short thin black stripe behind the eye, much thinner than a
No. Shrike she said. It pumps its tail a little and sometimes feeds on the
ground. She has seen it a number of times there. We went thru the shrikes,
kingbirds, and Townsend's Solitaire. She said the Gray Jay and Clark's
Nutcracker would be bigger than this bird.

I was hoping that someone that lives near Sequim could contact her and maybe
get to see the bird and identify it.



Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at aol.com