Hi Tweets

First, a big THANK YOU to the birding party at the Nile Burn yesterday.
We were wandering around semi-lost and a couple of vehicles passed us by.
Since they were going the same direction we had decided on, we followed.
Had to drop back quite away because of the dust and we complained because
they didn't seem to be in any hurry and time was running out for us. Came
around a corner and they had stopped and everyone was out of their
vehicles - with binoculars at the ready! Should have guessed that they were
birders moseying through the area!! The were trying to get views of a Blue
Grouse but one of them asked about our target birds and then told us that
Denny Granstrand was trying for photos of a pair of Black-backed Woodpeckers
feeding a young at a nest hole. They gave us great directions and we found
him with no problems whatsoever.

Set up the scope and waited. I hope the additional disruption didn't keep
Denny from his photos. After almost a half hour he had to leave and about
ten minutes later, the female came in to feed the young bird. She stayed
around for the best part of a half hour with no sign of the male. After
feeding the young with what she brought in she busied herself on a closeby
Ponderosa Pine and a smaller Doug Fir and made numerous trips back to the
nest hole for much shorter periods than when she had first appeared after
foraging away from the nest. If the area where the nest hole is constitutes
part of the Nile Burn, then the burn and foraging is much different then in
Oregon. The trees were not fire killed and the bark was not loose. Also,
the forest type is slightly different, in Oregon I got both Three-toed and
Black-backed in fire killed Lodgepole Pine. Standing in the burn you could
actually here the beetle larvae 'knocking' against the underside of the bark
and watch the woodpeckers land, listen carefully while cocking their heads
from side to side and then zeroing in on a larvae, flaking off the bark and
getting the grub. The Black-backed at Nile Burn was doing very little
'flaking' and a lot more 'probing'. Doug Fir doesn't yield to flaking as
easily as the Ponderosa (on which it spent about three-quarters of its
foraging time). We didn't check the altitude either but I expected them
'higher'. Oh well, birds is where birds is!! Great bird -- THANKS.

Second, the next three birds to get for Elaine's Life List are Northern
Saw-whet Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl and Virginia Rail (I have heard that it is
possible at the boardwalk in Kirkland??). If anyone has any good locations
for these birds or would help us get them it would be greatly appreciated.
We don't count 'heard' birds, so hearing them would be great but not get
them on her list.

Many thanks and good birding to all,

Bob and Elaine Taylor
Orting, WA