Hi folks,

Quietly paddling a canoe is a great way to see birds - who seem not to
recognize you as a 'person', and often let you get a lot closer than when
you're walking up on them. I took a late morning canoe paddle down Vance
Creek yesterday. I put into the creek just south of the Elma airport, and
paddled about a mile-and-a-half. Vance creek starts out narrow (where you
have to push through some willows), then widens into a 'slough' as it
parallels Wenzel Slough road. This is where I saw the Black-shouldered Kite
in the alders... it could probably be seen from Wenzel Sl. Road, but I
didn't look from that angle. The DeLorme map shows a "Huttula Lake" where
the creek entered a large flooded area where there were duck hunters, so I
turned around and paddled back. At the 'lower end' of my trip, the creek
had flooded into the state Fish & Wildlife area that can be accessed off
Schoulweiler Road just west of Elma.

I saw:
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Trumpeter Swan
Canada Goose - moffitti & taverneri
Mallard
Pintail
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Lesser Scaup
Black-shouldered Kite
Northern Harrier
Bald Eagle - yearling
Sharp-shinned Hawk - M & F hunting together
Red-tailed Hawk
Am. Kestrel
Virginia Rail - heard two
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin - flocks flying over
Common Snipe
Ring-billed Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull types
Belted Kingfisher
Red-shafted Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Steller's Jay
W. Scrub Jay
Crow
Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Varied Thrush
Am. Robin
Starling - bazillions in big flocks
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Oregon Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
Pine Siskin

Not bad for a couple hours of light exercise.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net