Hi Tweets,

Richard Repp and I both visited Hardy Canyon and the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
today. I was there for almost two hours. During that time I saw the BGGN
many times. I am convinced there is only one gnatcatcher, a male, there.

The nest is in a Three-tip Sagebrush that does have yellow blossoms.
Richard noticed that the vegetation around that bush is considerably beaten
down from people trying to get a look at the nest. I suppose that would be
a problem is there was a nesting pair. Perhaps it would be advisable to
stay 30-40 feet away from that bush just in case there is a female in the area.

The gnatcatcher is a totally uncooperative bird for photographing with my
technique - shooting through my scope. Shortly after I decided the only way
to get a photo would be to focus on one branch and wait for it to land
there, I noticed that on two consecutive visits, it perched on the same
branch just above the nest. So I focused my scope there, attached the
camera, and waited. Fifteen minutes later, the gnatcatcher perched on the
branch and had its picture taken. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing and
the photo is a little blurry. But it gives me hope for the future.

In a forty minute time span while I was there, the gnatcatcher visited the
nest nine times. Richard saw it bringing more stuff to add to the nest..
He (Richard) tied two pieces of blue twine to the bush the nest in. One
foot-long piece is on the side of the bush opposite the nest and the other
is tightly wound around a branch about 18 inches above the nest.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA
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* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
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