Hey tweets, Isn't it the oddest thing that birds prefer certain "sweet
spots" and neglect habitat that, to our eyes at least, looks the same? I
mean, in Lane's book about Texas coast birding, Harold Holt recommends a
certain little pond (The Willows) in Anahuac reserve, where for years the
warblers like to go. They *could* go to several other such ponds on the
reserve, but they don't.

We had a prime example of this avian partiality on Saturday, when Kevin
Aanerud took the Flycatchers and Warblers class on an all-day trip through
the I-90 corridor. Kevin was positively profligate in showing us his
favorite birdy areas, and I must say, the places were absolutely stuffed
with fantastic birds. My favorite place of the day was the area around
Liberty, which had singing Nashville and MacGillivray's warblers so we could
(laughably) attempt to tell them apart by their song. Just when I thought I
had the songs down, a song sparrow started in and I was doomed: it sounded
just like a warbler. I did great some fabulous looks at a singing male
MacGillivray's, his head thrown back as he warbled his little heart out for
oh, maybe, ten seconds. That's a long look for warblers. I also got a
perfect view of a Nashville for two seconds, which is far more typical of
these gorgeous but frustrating wood warblers.

The Liberty area gave us wonderful woodpeckers, too, including a couple of
hairys. I know hairy woodpeckers are common, but I don't get to see them
very often since they don't go to the Fill much. We also saw a couple of
downy families trying to satisfy their piteously calling young. Since my
teenagers just returned home for the summer, I could sympathize with the
harassed-looking parents. Still in their hole was a red-breasted sapsucker
family - the parents kept up a steady stream of food, so we got to see them
both perched and flying.

Also in the Liberty area was one intersection of two gravel roads, where the
finches had found something in the road that they really liked - Kevin
thought it was some kind of essential salt. Both purple and Cassin's finches
flew in and happily pecked up the road side by side, giving us great
opportunities to tell them apart. Yeah, right. I think finches are hard to
distinguish unless their plumages are textbook-perfect, and how often does
that happen? Anyway, after much looking, I think I have identified enough
field marks to give me a reasonable idea, at least enough of one to say to
future trip-followers, "Oh yes, well, that looks like a Cassin's (or purple
or house) finch to me," with enough authority in my voice so that people
will think I know what I'm talking about. Actually, after one has publicly
identified the twentieth electric lightpole cover as a peregrine falcon, one
finds it's a lot less embarrassing to say, "I *think* that's a Cassin's (or
purple or house) finch" and then explain why, leaving the door open for
someone else to say, "You idiot, that's a female longspur," or whatever.

Below is a list of all the birds I saw on the trip (we had a big group, so
other birders' lists might be quite different from mine):

great blue heron
common merganser
turkey vulture
golden eagle
red-tailed hawk
prairie falcon
American kestrel
California quail
killdeer
spotted sandpiper
rock dove
mourning dove
common poorwill (dead; collected feathers)
Vaux's swift
calliope hummingbird
rufous hummingbird
Lewis's woodpecker
red-naped sapsucker
red-breasted sapsucker
downy woodpecker
hairy woodpecker
northern flicker (red-shafted)
olive-sided flycatcher
western wood-pewee
willow flycatcher
Hammond's flycatcher
dusky flycatcher
Pacific-slope flycatcher
western kingbird
warbling vireo
red-eyed vireo
Steller's jay
black-billed magpie
American crow
common raven
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
cliff swallow
barn swallow
northern rough-winged swallow
black-capped chickadee
bushtit
red-breasted nuthatch
golden-crowned kinglet
western bluebird
Swainson's thrush
American robin
gray catbird
European starling
cedar waxwing
Nashville warbler
yellow warbler
yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon's)
black-throated gray warbler
Townsend's warbler
MacGillivray's warbler
common yellowthroat
western tanager
black-headed grosbeak
spotted towhee
chipping sparrow
song sparrow
dark-eyed junco
red-winged blackbird
Brewer's blackbird
Bullock's oriole
purple finch
Cassin's finch
house finch
red crossbill
pine siskin
American goldfinch
evening grosbeak
house sparrow

-Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com