Hi Tweeters,

Thanks to the folks who let me know the Harris Sparrow was still around in Seattle. ?After a nice East Lake Wa Aud. trip to West Seattle on Sat. I got to see the sparrow. ?The woman in the house on the left of trail is very welcoming and invites folks into her back yard. ?She has a great feeding setup and got great looks at the sparrow and an Anna's hummer landed less than 3 feet from my eyes!

Sun. I went to see the McCown's Longspur in Portand, spent about an hour there but did not get to see it. ?The Horned Larks were a lovely consolation prize. ?I have only seen the larks once before in a distracting mixed flock in E. Wa. so I really enjoyed them. ?They were very active even without the birder's disturbance. ?I regretted not giving one fellow a hard time who went right through an area they were feeding in, effectively flushing them and driving them over a fabric fenced area. ?I ran into a couple I know from Bellevue who had been down to Woodburn area to see the Vermillion flycatcher before hitting Portland. ?They had great digital pictures. ?So off to Woodburn. ?This was much farther south than I expected. ?43 miles from the border I counted on my odometer on the return trip. ?I must advice a strategy to see the flycatcher. ?Early or late is the only way. ?So I gave up the thought of a stop at Ridgefield to stay to see the flycatcher and sure enough it was approaching the end of the day when it showed up. ?But what a bird!! ?The evening light made his breast look flourescent orange to me. ?It dipped the water of it's chosen pond occasionally to capture food and at one point had pulled up a wormy type food item from the ground and brought it to it's perch but he ended up dropping it and did not go back after it. ?He bobbed and spread his tail while perched. ?On my way back to the car a woman who was walking in the area asked what people were looking at and I showed her through my binoculars. ?I told her it was way out of the area, a Texas bird. ?She worried about it being cold, then I wondered if the diet it has been getting has been adequate. ?The consolation prize for this spot is nice too, but not as great as the Horned Larks. ?There were 3 pair of Cinnamon Teal in a nearby pond with beautiful crisp breeding plumage.

On Monday I think I saw the Snohomish Gyrfalcon but could not be sure due to lack of scope. ?Large falcon for sure. ?I just wished when it was perched at the side view that I could have seen how the wings were in relation to to the tail... ?I have not birded that area before and explored and went to Bob Heirman where there was an immature Swan on the pond and 2 pair of Barrow's Goldeneye in the river.

2 lifer's (Harris Sparrow, Vermillion Flycatcher)and one possible lifer (Gyrfalcon) in 3 days, isn't bad...

Kathy

Kathy Andrich
Roosting in Renton
kjandrich at netscape.net ? ?

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