After reading about the Bishop on this site, I spent 2 hours at Ridgefield
last Thursday afternoon, 6/19.
I went directly to the second bridge on the Kiwa Trail at 3:00 P.M., and
watched and waited for about 1/2 hour.

Suddenly in the distance I saw what appeared to be a bright reddish light.
I have never seen such a vibrant,
neon-colored bird. It looked like an orange-red lightbulb as it flew across
the top of the grasses. I saw it distinctly
five different times in the 1/2 hour, but never for very long at one time.
It would go into the grass and I
never saw it come out, but would see it a few minutes later somewhere else
in the meadow. It flew along the tops
of the grasses, then settled into the grass. It seemed to always return to
the tallest grass in the distance, about
100-125 feet away from the bridge (I think north but not sure of directions
there).

Sharyl Mackay
Vancouver, WA
sharyld at attbi.com



----- Original Message -----
From: "Sherry Hagen" <littlebirder at netzero.net>
To: "tweeters message" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>; <kestrel at aaahawk.com>
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: Ridgefield NWR - Bishop - QUESTIONS


> We saw the bird about 3:08 PM for 15 minutes off and on before it
> disappeared in the tall grasses a bit further out and did not reappear
> .
> It was feeding on the seeds at the ends of the tall grasses thus with the
> weight of the bird the grasses would bend over.
>
> At the end of the bridge is an old (?) service road or such that you can
> kind of look down. When we first saw it, it flew onto the grasses next to
> this rather 'open' area and then would fly up but stayed low and then down
> again into another bunch of the tall grasses. Sometimes it would disappear
> from sight and then fly up and land where you could see it.
>
> It was not vocalizing that we could hear but it DID puff its head feathers
> up as illustrated in Nat. Geo. Guide to North American Birds in a display.
>
> It was not seen in a tree by us. In the photo that I was shown for
> identification eariler this week, the bird was in the trees near by.
>
> Sherry Hagen
> Vancouver, WA
> littlebirder at netzero.net
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carol Ledford" <kestrel at aaahawk.com>
> To: "'Obol'" <obol at lists.orst.edu>
> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 4:45 PM
> Subject: Re: Ridgefield NWR - Bishop - QUESTIONS
>
>
> > Today, Bill Clemons and I went to Ridgefield over the noon hour in the
> hopes
> > of seeing the Bishop, and we did not find it. Since we might make
another
> > run out there later this week, it would be nice to have some additional
> > information.
> >
> > Some OBOLers/Tweeters indicated the bird had been seen north and west of
> the
> > second bridge heading clockwise on the Kiwa Trail. If anyone can
provide
> > further information as to this bird's behavior, it would be very
> > appreciated; e.g., in trees, on tall grasses, among the watery marsh
> plants,
> > etc. Was it vocalizing? Was it close to the trail or off at a
distance?
> > What time of day was it seen?
> >
> > If any readers of this post are on Tweeters, it would be nice if someone
> > would forward/post these questions there also.
> >
> > Thanks much for any information you can provide.
> >
> > Carol Ledford
> > kestrel at aaahawk.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>