Hey tweets, Sorry this is so late. Life intruded. But I did want to describe
to you the recent SAS trip up to Reifel.

Educators know that smaller class size equals better education. So I guess
the Seattle Auduboners who came with me on an SAS field trip to the Reifel
Refuge in BC on May 31 must have received a humdinger of a lesson. Not from
me, mind you. Rather, we had three budding master birders along for the
ride, producing a teacher/student ratio of 1:3. Good thing, too. On our side
trip to Iona, one of the participants spotted an odd loon and asked us how
we were on winter-plumaged loons. I was about to reply that I was pretty
hotsy-totsy, having spent a LOT of time on these birds during the master
birder classes this past winter. As an aside, I put in the extra time on
this group of birds because when lecturer-guru Dennis Paulson brought in
some "skins" (i.e., stuffed birds) for us to identify, I loudly said the one
with the whitest neck was a red-throated loon, "obviously." Unfortunately
for my ego, it was a western grebe.

That chastening experience led me to rethink my impulse to brag about my
loon know-how on Saturday. Just as well: the loon our participant had
spotted on one of the Iona ponds was really odd-looking: very white neck,
rather plain brown back, whitish sides. All the master birders put our heads
together and argued about what it could be. We finally broke our huddle and
pronounced our opinion: first spring RED-THROATED LOON. Much to my delight,
that same bird showed up on the Vancouver Rare Bird Alert. Whew.

Reifel was a little slow on Saturday, unlike the previous Saturday when
Georgia Conti and I had spent an hour walking 200 yards. It took us that
long because of the overall stuffedness of the trees with warblers, vireos,
tanagers, grosbeaks and flycatchers. One week later, the migrants had pretty
much all left. We saw tons of CEDAR WAXWINGS, SONG SPARROWS, BROWN-HEADED
COWBIRDS, but no flycatchers of any sort and mighty few warblers. Oh well,
that's birding for you.

Our most notable sightings there included: a EURASIAN WIGEON, two SPOTTED
SANDPIPERS, all three TEALS, a few spectacular WOOD DUCKS, and our best
spot, a father, mother and incredibly sweet baby SANDHILL CRANE. The cranes
were right by the path in a grassy triangle teeming with bugs. The parents
moved through the short grass slowly, picking up choice bugs which they
would feed one by one to the baby. The baby was old enough to find its own
bugs, so the parents were focusing on finding "treats." It was charming to
watch them give the choicest tidbits to their baby.

At Iona, we had good luck with YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS, a COMMON LOON, two
male RUDDY DUCKS with stunningly blue bills, and COMMON YELLOWTHROATS who
weren't that crazy about us trying to see them. By contrast, a couple of
MARSH WRENS were definitely the outgoing types, perching right out in the
open to belt out their songs.

Now that I know where Iona Island is, I'd like to go back during fall
migration to try my luck at finding rare shorebirds. If Auduboners are
interested, I'll offer to lead a trip there sometime in late August.

A (semi)complete list of the birds we saw on this trip follows. - Connie,
Seattle

common loon
red-throated loon
pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
Canada goose
wood duck
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
Eurasian wigeon
northern shoveler
blue-winged teal
cinnamon teal
ruddy duck
northern harrier
bald eagle
red-tailed hawk
American coot
sandhill crane
killdeer
spotted sandpiper
glaucous-winged gull
rock dove
belted kingfisher
American crow
tree swallow
barn swallow
black-capped chickadee
American robin
marsh wren
European starling
brown-headed cowbird
yellow-headed blackbird
redwinged blackbird
cedar waxwing
Wilson's warbler
common yellowthroat
spotted towhee
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
dark-eyed junco (Oregon)
house finch
American goldfinch
house sparrow