Hi Connie and Tweets

Boy do I know what you are feeling in looking at juveniles (bird types).
There you are, standing looking thru your binoculars at this strange
appearing little critter. You've looked at it for what seems like
forever, you know it almost is like something you are familiar with -
but not quite -, it's behaving almost like that familiar something - but
not quite. You are about convinced that you have totally spaced out and
forgotten everything you ever knew about birds, when AHA something
finally clicks and you realize it is a juvenile junco, or towhee, or
white-crowned sparrow. And you feel completely stoooopid that you didn't
realize any sooner. Even after you have done this a bunch of times, and
should have learned, the same reaction can occur.

Had a nice look at a juvenile junco and juvenile robin yesterday
afternoon in the same binocular view, and wonder of wonders I realized
what they were right away. Hip, hip hooray.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia.com

Connie Sidles wrote:

>Hey tweets, It's late June, a time when I start looking for signs of fall.
>The heat of summer is purgatory to me, and summer air seems to hang
>oppressively heavy above the drooping plants all summer long. Fall, on the
>other hand, is marked by crisp mornings and wisps of fog that burn off in
>the afternoon. Instead of the brassy light of the summer sun, the fall
>sunlight is rich and mellow. Since I can hardly wait for fall, I headed off
>for the Fill this morning in hopes of seeing some early fall migrating
>peeps.
>
>Late June is the most difficult time to bird the Fill, I think, because -
>what with many adult birds molting and many juvenile birds joining the
>melange - all the birds look alike to me, and the ones that don't look alike
>look so different that they appear to be different species altogether (in my
>early birding days, it took me two weeks of intense study of juvenile juncos
>before I realized that they *were* juncos, not some exotic who-knows-what;
>when I did finally realize, I said, "Oh, juuunnncccooos," in a foolish
>voice, then I glanced around to see if anyone had heard me, looking I am
>sure much like a cat that has fallen off the couch and then tries to pretend
>that it always meant to do that). There were plenty of tree swallows and
>violet-green swallows on hand at the main pond, but telling them apart when
>they all look brown is hard. You have to look at their tiny faces zooming by
>at a thousand miles an hour, hoping to see whether the dark color comes down
>through their eye or stops above it. I ask you.
>
>The dabbling ducks are all pretty much in eclipse now, making them very
>challenging to identify. There was a small flock of gadwalls on the main
>pond, intermixed with a few mallards (told by their upturned, curly tails),
>a juvenile wood duck too clueless to know that it is supposed to be shy, and
>one blue-winged teal (this is a tough ID).
>
>One nice thing about the heavy summer air is that it is still, at least it
>was early this morning. That really helped to find the birds that would
>plunge into the foliage and disappear, as well as the birds that like to
>stay hidden in tall grass or reeds (such as an annoying marsh wren that
>stayed out of sight just to taunt me on purpose). My favorite among these
>plungers and hiders was the male common yellowthroat who was singing in the
>tall grass next to the tallest cottonwoods down near the point. I finally
>saw him, but it wasn't easy. No peeps. Here's a list of what I found:
>
>pied-billed grebe
>great blue heron
>Canada goose
>wood duck
>gadwall
>mallard
>blue-winged teal
>ring-necked pheasant
>killdeer
>glaucous-winged gull
>rock dove
>Vaux's swift
>Anna's hummingbird
>downy woodpecker
>northern flicker (red-shafted)
>American crow
>tree swallow
>violet-green swallow
>cliff swallow
>barn swallow
>black-capped chickadee
>bushtit
>Bewick's wren
>marsh wren
>American robin
>European starling
>common yellowthroat
>savannah sparrow
>song sparrow
>white-crowned sparrow
>red-winged blackbird
>house finch
>house sparrow - Connie,Seattle
>
>csidles at isomedia.com
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