Hi Tweeters:

Erica Zwick and I hiked up Hardy Canyon yesterday (Sunday, June 30) and located the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. We found it past the tall lone pine and before the fence that starts on the left, which is several hundred yards south of the lone pine. It flew into a large shrub on the right side of the road (about 50 feet to the right of the road) as you walk up the road, and then took off into the sage scrub on the east side (left) of the road. We got long, close looks at it. It was next to an Eastern Kingbird, which was fascinating because the Gnatcatcher was only about half the size of the E. Kingbird. We birded the immediate area for about another hour and a half, and never saw it again. The area was loaded with various birds, as was reported by Andy and Ellen Stepniewski last week.

Franny Drobny
Seattle, Washington
fdrobny at cairncross.com