This morning Gary Wiles, Kristin Stewart and I saw the Great-Tailed Grackle
at the Auburn mall site. We watched this bird for about an hour beginning
at 8:30. The morning seems like it would be an ideal time for seeing it
since the Brewer's Blackbirds were flocked up and actively feeding...rather
than later when you could end up trying to find their roosting location.
Anyways, we found the bird right away with a large flock of Brewer's along a
plastic tarp fence at the edge of a grassy field between the Mall Theater
and parking lot #4 (near Ann Taylor/Old Navy?). The grackle seemed to
associate with the Brewer's but was often found seperate from the main
flocks. It was seen chasing a few of the Brewer's and being chased by the
crows. When we left the bird called repeatedly, sounding similar to the
Brewer's calls but louder and not as thin. Also present were:
6 or 7 California Gulls (so close you could see the red gape, a first for
the three of us...have to start baiting gulls more often, you never know
what you'll notice)
2 Ring-Billed Gulls
Starlings

After our success we found ourselves with a lot of extra time, so we hit the
Portland Ave wetland area in Tacoma (Gog-le-hite? Can't remember the proper
name) for Thayer's Gulls. We counted 12 THAYER'S GULLS amongst the
Glaucous/W X Westerns and 2 Ring-Billed Gulls. Also flushed one
COMMON/WILSON'S SNIPE (I'm easing myself into this one).

The two species were so cooperative we considered keeping the magic alive by
chasing the BLUE JAY...but my laundry was calling.
SOMEBODY NEEDS TO DO A 4 JAY DAY!

Jason Paulios
JPaulios at hotmail.com
Olympia, WA




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