Hi Tweeters,

A quick note on some birds of interest this past weekend (sorry for the
tardiness of my post).

I spent all day Saturday sifting through blackbird flocks near
Vancouver Lake in Clark County for the reported female Rusty Blackbird.
The flocks were mostly seen just west of where State Route 501 makes a sharp
90-degree turn to the west away from Vancouver Lake. Flocks were also
located about a half-mile to the north along Lower River Road. I had no
luck
locating the distinctively patterned female that has been reported here but
did
at one point, have a brief look at a strong candidate for a male Rusty. I
could
not, however, adequately separate the bird from a "fall variant" Brewer's.
I'm
definitely getting that same frustration that Gary Bletsch expressed
recently
about looking for this species! While searching the flock, several times I
saw
a mostly albino Brewer's Blackbird looking somewhat like a large Snow
Bunting in
coloration - quite a strking bird.

While playing golf on Sunday at Willows Run Golf Course, I found a Barn
Swallow foraging over one of the ponds there.

Good Luck and Good Birding!

Ted Kenefick
Seattle, WA

tedk at nwlink.com