I often wish that George Walter was a Tweeters participant. He used to band upwards of
200 nestling Western Bluebirds on Fort Lewis (and some unknown smaller number of adult
females captured on their nests) and he probably has some band return data from winter
recoveries. I drive around Thurston and Pierce counties a lot and I rarely see Western
Bluebirds during the winter. I know where to look for them during the breeding season
and do see them more often in the spring and summer. Not sure if that means much.

I don't believe that Bird Banding Lab has a facility that would allow queries of band
recovery data via the internet. How cool would that be?

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov