Hi Tweets,

I just talked to a guy in Tieton, about twenty miles northwest of Yakima,
who thinks he saw a "Texas" variety Lesser Goldfinch at the edge of his
orchard early this week. He described it well - yellow breast and belly,
black from the top of the head to the tail, and white wing bars. He saw it
quite well from a distance of 30-50 feet for nearly half an hour. He has 30
or so American Goldfinches come to his feeders every day and felt this bird
was about the same size and shape, though no Americans were nearby when he
was observing the Lesser.

This guy described himself as being very interested in birds but doesn't
stray away from home in search of birds. He has all of the current field
guides including Sibley.

I am going to visit his place tomorrow to search for the bird.

He and his wife had an interesting experience with a Barred Owl last winter,
January-May 2000. Andy Stepniewski got wind of this owl so he and I went
out to see it the first part of January, 2000. The owl stayed in their yard
until the first part of May. His wife bought mice at the pet store and
would toss one down on the snow in front of the owl, which would swoop down
and catch the mouse. They fed it two mice a day.

As the woman was filling their bird feeders every day (they evidently have
quite a few) the owl would follow her around waiting for its meal. If she
took too long to give it a mouse, the owl would fly past her so close that
its wing would brush her shoulder or hair. They were quite disappointed
that "their" Barred Owl did not return this past winter.

If I have any more news about the Lesser Goldfinch, I will pass it on.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA
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* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
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