Wayne:

I believe Gayle's is at least the second Lazuli Bunting for San Juan County,
but Russell's input might unearth a record or two more.

I recall at least one other record for San Juan County, also a late spring
bird and from Orcas, I believe a window-kill long ago near the town of Olga.
The record is listed, I believe, in Lewis' and Sharpe's Birding in the San
Juan Islands book.

By contrast, the species can be fairly common locally in the
Concrete-to-Marblemount corridor of central Skagit County, and occurs
eastward to as far as the Mt. Hardy burn. West of Concrete it shows up much
less commonly in May-June to as far west as the Mt. Vernon area, but I don't
recall any Fidalgo I or Guemes I records, coming close to the east edge of
San Juan County.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
email: scottratkinson at hotmail.com


>From: "WAYNE WEBER" <contopus at home.com>
>Reply-To: contopus at home.com
>To: "GAYLE BENTON" <gbenton at rockisland.com>, "TWEETERS"
><tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Re: Lazuli Bunting on Orcas Island
>Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 08:55:53 -0700
>
>Gayle and Tweeters,
>
>A Lazuli Bunting on Orcas Island is indeed an unusual sighting. I'm
>sure there are some previous records for the San Juan Islands (Russell
>Rogers or others, do you have details?), but I expect there are few.
>They breed in very small numbers on the adjacent mainland (Whatcom and
>Skagit Counties), but more in the eastern parts of those counties.
>Although San Juan County got pretty good coverage during the
>Washington Breeding Bird Atlas Project, 1987 to 1996, no Lazuli
>Buntings were reported as even possible breeders during that period in
>San Juan County (Breeding Birds of Washington State, by Smith,
>Mattocks, & Cassidy, 1997).
>
>Please keep tabs on this bird, Gayle, and lets us know if it stays
>around and maintains a territory, or if it disappears after a day or
>two.
>
>Wayne C. Weber
>Kamloops and Delta, BC
>contopus at home.com
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Gayle Benton <gbenton at rockisland.com>
>To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 2:58 PM
>Subject: Re: Lazuli Bunting
>
>
> > Hi Tweeters,
> > Have been reading of all the sightings of Lazuli's with interest -
>they have
> > always been one of my favorite birds. Went out in the yard this am
>and
> > heard this song - very different from the usual cacophony. I
>thought, it
> > can't be!! But it was. A beautiful male singing his heart out and
>coming
> > momentarily to an area below a seed feeder in my yard. This is very
> > exciting because I am on Orcas Island and I think this is a very
>unusual
> > sighting. In fact, I think I need to report it. I have feeders
>out, a
> > small bathing pond, and so my yard really attracts birds. I must
>have 50 to
> > 100 Siskins around with Evening Grosbeaks,Crossbills and everything
>else
> > that prefers this habitat so there is alot of bird 'noise'. I'm
>sure that
> > is what brought this Lazuli in. Anyway, would someone kindly send
>me the
> > name of the person that I need to report this to? Thank you.
> > Gayle Benton
> > Eastsound, WA
> > gbenton at rockisland.com
> >
> >
> >
>

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