Subject: B&W Warbler still at Daroga Park
Date: Dec 29 21:42:05 2003
From: mattocks - mattocks at eburg.com


Hello all,
After an hour & a half of searching, Gary Fredericks found the
Black-and-white Warbler about 3 o'clock this afternoon in an old Doug fir
just south of the basketball courts at Daroga Park. He & I then watched it
at about 20' distance, and just above eye level, as it foraged on and
around the trunk, in front of and behind the bases of several
branches. The bird was in sight for brief views, then behind the trunk or
a branch, then back in sight. It was quite active and appeared to be
successfully foraging, peering upside down under branches and giving us
good (brief) views of both top and bottom. The sun was low and about to
set behind the cliff on the west side of the Columbia River.
The overall color of the upperparts was a bluish-black with white
stripes, and the underparts were white with dull black streaks or rows of
black spots. There was a central white stripe on the crown and a white
stripe above the thin black eyeline. The upper back had several white
stripes, and there were two white wingbars. There were several black
streaks on the sides of the chest and flanks, and elongated dark spots on
the undertail coverts. The chin and throat were entirely white, and the
cheeks (auriculars) under the black eyeline looked as white as the chin and
throat. After a few minutes it worked its way up into more dense branches
and we left.
There were several small groups of Golden-crowned Kinglets and two
Mountain Chickadees also foraging deep in the evergreens of this park. We
flushed a Great Horned Owl, several flickers flew by, and we gave too brief
looks at the large flock of mostly scaup and coots close offshore.

Phil Mattocks