Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded with Larry and Jacque Goodhew again, covering
several locations within Kitsap Co. The weather conditions consited of
partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies, with moderate constant wind,at times
with a few lingering showers early, but the day was by far the better of the
two days of great birding. Th wind was far less persistant than yesterday,
but limited to a few locations, with afew areas that had NO wind such as
Point No Point, which surprised us. Our main highlights of the day was 2
COMMON REDPOLLS amongst a flock of 60+ Pine Siskins at Port Gamble in Kitsap
Co., being one of very few reports away from northern Puget Sound this
winter. The birds were well observed feeding with the roaming flock of Pine
Siskins at the north end of town, as we picked them out of the flock easily
within the Red Alder trees they were foraging in, after initially locating
them. This was our largest flock of Pine Siskins of the day, and the only
flock we were able to get a close look at,making it worthwhile in locating
the Common Redpolls, but it is most probable they will move around the area,
with NO active feeders located during our visit, but plenty of Red Alder
trees for the birds to forage in. We were also fortunate to see the birds
well in appropriate lighting conditions, but observed them for 15
minutes,then the entire flock continued roaming the trees until we left. The
other highlight of the day was 3 calling MOUNTAIN QUAIL located at the
S.Port Orchard Airport at 7:45am, but windy conditions during our visit
probably prohibited viewing the birds, but we presumed the are beginning to
call on territory. A list of additional highlights at selected locations and
times follow for our day:

S.Port Orchard Airport 7:40am-8:30am

1 Ring-necked Pheasant
3 Mountain Quail(heard only)

Point No Point/Hansville 9:40am-10:05am

14 Sanderlings
1 Common Snipe
8 Bonaparte's Gulls
8 Common Murres
3 Rhino.Auklets

Port Gamble 10:30am-10:55am

5 Red-throated Loons
6 Pacific Loons
8 Long-tailed Ducks(Oldsquaw)
2 COMMON REDPOLLS

Salsbury Point Count Park boat launch 11:10am-11:20am

1 Pacific Loon
14 Marbled Murrelets

Kitsap Memorial State Park 11:50am-12:10am

4 Pacific Loons
1 Merlin

mouth of Gorst Creek(accessed from Hwy.3) 12:17pm-12:40pm,4pm(two visits)

1 Red-throated Loon
1 Eurasian Wigeon
9 Ruddy Ducks
1 Merlin
200 Dunlin
1 first-year Thayer's Gull

Port Orchard waterfront(S.R.166 to Beach Dr. E) 1pm-3:45pm

3 Red-throated Loons
16 Eared Grebes
4 Eurasian Wigeon
6 Harlequin Ducks
27 Black Scoters
4 Black Turnstones
23 Western Sandpipers
78 Dunlin
1 second-year Herring Gull
3 first-year Thayer's Gulls
3 Western Gulls


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net