Dear Randy (and tweets), I'm in discussion now with other birders about
whether the finches I saw at LIGO were House or Cassin's. Although the head
color of the one male I saw was more extensive than I would have thought
possible for a House finch, the flank streaking was kind of wide. On
reflection, I probably had House finches, not Cassin's. Sorry for the
confusion. - Connie

on 6/16/03 9:40 PM, Hill at hill at cbnn.net wrote:

> Hi Connie-
>
> If those were Cassin's rather than House Finches, let Bill LaFramboise know
> about the sighting.
>
> Randy Hill
> Othello
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Connie Sidles" <csidles at isomedia.com>
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2003 3:58 PM
> Subject: Hanford trip
>
>
>> Hey tweets, I know many of us try to combine business trips with birding,
>> but often the result is like taking your husband into a fabric store. You
>> know you're having fun, but at the same time, you feel guilty because
> time's
>> a-wastin' (your hubby's toe is a-tappin') and you need to leave, *right
> now*
>> or there will be a spousal implosion.
>>
>> Such was my fate yesterday, when my physicist husband took it into his
> head
>> to travel to the LIGO facility at Hanford Reach to talk to the other
>> physicists there about quantum engineering. The LIGO people have been
>> working for decades on detecting a gravity wave from deep space. They
>> started by inventing a detector that is nothing more than a big chunk of
>> solid aluminum with various motion detectors glued on top. They have
>> progressed to using two immensely long tubes of who-knows-what stretching
>> for hundreds of yards in two directions out into the desert, matched by a
>> similar array in Louisiana, of all places.
>>
>> For those of us who are clueless about physics, the engineers have put up
> a
>> colorful set of posters in the lobby of their visitors building. The
> posters
>> purport to explain what LIGO is all about, but the engineers have vastly
>> overestimated my ability to process information involving mathematical
>> equations, incomprehensible diagrams and a photo of Einstein riding a
>> bicycle.
>>
>> We arrived at the site in the late afternoon, just in time to join the
> last
>> walking tour of the day. My husband was thrilled, but I was hot hot hot.
> So
>> I elected to stay behind and sit in the meager shade, watching the few
>> starlings, western meadowlarks, Cassin's finches and barn swallows pant in
>> the heat. The finches were so pooped they didn't even object when one of
> the
>> little kids on the walking tour poked his head in a low tree and
> discovered
>> a finch nest with six eggs in it. You could almost hear the mother finch,
>> who was perched in the only shade to be found for a hundred square miles,
>> mutter, "Whatever." I sympathized. John was gone for two and a half hours.
>> The mother finch and I had plenty of time to make friends, gossip about
>> absent-minded husbands whose enthusiasms sometimes overwhelmed common
> sense,
>> complain about kids, the weather, the high cost of raising a family, etc.
>> It's always great to make new friends, don't you think? Also great to
>> realize that you are hallucinating and perhaps it's time to get a drink.
>>
>> On the plus side, John and I had a great time birding our way to and from
>> Hanford. On the way over, we took the Yakima Canyon route and had a great
>> time at Umptanum camp site. Although this is a place that is probably
> better
>> to visit on a weekday, when the beer-drinking campers are probably fewer,
>> it's so thick with birds that you soon forget how much you'd rather belong
>> to a bovine species than a pongipoidal one. Notable sightings included a
>> YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (oblivious, for once, to birders getting good looks),
>> BULLOCK'S ORIOLES, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, YELLOW WARBLER, EASTERN
> KINGBIRD,
>> SONG SPARROW, SPOTTED TOWHEE, YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS, and CEDAR
> WAXWINGS.
>>
>> Other good sites we hit:
>> Roslyn (OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, STELLER'S JAY, WILSON'S WARBLER, CHIPPING
>> SPARROW, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, NORTHERN FLICKER,
>> CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, WESTERN TANAGER, MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE)
>>
>> L.T. Murray reserve (TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - great looks), WESTERN
> BLUEBIRD,
>> TURKEY VULTURE, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD)
>>
>> Moxee Agricultural Station (COMMON NIGHTHAWK)
>>
>> Highway 240 at Mile 15 milepost (BURROWING OWL)
>>
>> Here is a complete list of what we found on our trip:
>>
>> Great blue heron
>> Turkey vulture
>> Canada goose
>> Wilson's snipe
>> Osprey
>> Bald eagle
>> Red-tailed hawk
>> American kestrel
>> California quail
>> American coot
>> Killdeer
>> Glaucous-winged gull
>> Ring-billed gull
>> Rock dove
>> Mourning dove
>> Burrowing owl
>> Common nighthawk
>> Vaux's swift
>> Calliope hummingbird
>> Northern flicker
>> Olive-sided flycatcher
>> Western kingbird
>> Eastern kingbird
>> Steller's jay
>> Black-billed magpie
>> American crow
>> Common raven
>> Horned lark
>> Tree swallow
>> Violet-green swallow
>> North rough-winged swallow
>> Bank swallow
>> Cliff swallow
>> Barn swallow
>> Mountain chickadee
>> Red-breasted nuthatch
>> Golden-crowned kinglet
>> Western bluebird
>> Mountain bluebird
>> Townsend's solitaire
>> American robin
>> European starling
>> Cedar waxwing
>> Yellow warbler
>> Wilson's warbler
>> Yellow-breasted chat
>> Western tanager
>> Black-headed grosbeak
>> spotted towhee
>> Chipping sparrow
>> Song sparrow
>> White-crowned sparrow
>> Dark-eyed junco
>> Red-winged blackbird
>> Yellow-headed blackbird
>> Brewer's blackbird
>> Western meadowlark
>> Brown-headed cowbird
>> Cassin's finch
>> American goldfinch
>> House sparrow
>>
>> - Connie, Seattle
>> csidles at isomedia.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>