Denny,

Thanks for the reminder of the Great-tailed Grackle presence at Miners years
ago. Boy...if that doesn't date us. Occasionally, when I drive by Miners, I
think of the grackle and wonder why this "rapidly" expanding (as the
conventional wisdom seems to state) species hasn't been sighted in the
intervening 13+ years.

By the way, if you ever are in Yakima and if your a confirmed carnivore,
Miners still serves up the thickest burgers I know of (the place is still in
the 1950s, which suits Yakima just fine).

Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: <osprey at nwinfo.net>
To: <TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: Stanwood Great-tailed Grackle


> This grackle trip with the stop at McDonald's is interesting in light of
the
> history of Great-tailed Grackles in Washington. The Stanwood GTGR is the
> second one to be seen in Washington.
>
> The first one was found by Wilson and Susan Cady in Yakima on about May
24,
> 1987. Wilson and Susan stopped at Miner's Drive-in, one of Yakima's
oldest
> and most popular hamburger joints, on their way home from the Wenas
Campout.
> When they got home, Wilson called Andy Stepniewski and reported seeing a
> Great-tailed Grackle somewhat like: "I suppose you have seen the
> Great-tailed Grackle at Miner's eating french fries along with lots of
> Brewer's Blackbirds".
> Of course, the birding community in Yakima had not heard of it. There
soon
> followed a mass-flocking of Yakima Auduboners to Miner's to see the
grackle.
> It even made the front page of the Yakima newspaper.
>
> We tend to think we have to search in remote areas of the wilderness for
our
> rare birds. Great-tailed Grackles seem to prefer more urban spots - a
> hamburger joint and a seed and feed store.
>
> Denny Granstrand
> Yakima, WA
>
>
>
> At 04:11 PM 1/11/2001 -0800, you wrote:
> >tweeters:
> >I talked my 4 year old into driving with me to Stanwood to see the
> >Great-tailed Grackle with the promise of a stop at McDonalds.( I hate
> >bribery but a birders gotta do what a birders got to do)
> > I didn't see it initially at the feed store, so I look a block west at
> >the police station and it was there-on top of a telephone pole. I
> >watched it for about 10 min. before it flew to the power lines across
> >from the feed store. This bird "seemed" smaller than I imagined. The
> >"books" all say 18" or the size of a pigeon. Maybe it was the
> >distraction next to me in the car, but the bird seemed to my eyes only a
> >little bigger than the Red-winged Blackbirds near it on the wire. More
> >like the size the "books" describe for the size of a Common Grackle or a
> >"scrawny crow" as Michael Hobbs described it..
> >Does size really matter? :-) ? Any thoughts on the size of this bird?
> >I watched it for another 5 minutes or so till my impatient side-kick
> >insisted that we get to McDonalds "right now".
> >So we headed out.
> >arthur (and Dorian)
> >
> >
> * * * * * * * * * * *
> * Denny Granstrand *
> * Yakima, WA *
> * osprey at nwinfo.net *
> * * * * * * * * * * *
>
>
>