Even though Natalie are home writing this weekend, we couldn't avoid
doing a little bit of local birding. The first sighting - our first
Violet-green Swallow flying over the house this afternoon. The rest of
our birding was done this evening around 5 p.m. at Titlow Beach, were we
stopped to check for any early arriving Purple Martins. We didn't find
any yet, but the martins should be back soon. We are taking a special
interest in this Purple Martin population, so we plan nearly daily visits
for a while.

Keeping in mind that we only had time to observe the saltwater habitat at
Titlow, we had a pretty good hour of birding:

- Double-crested Cormorant (8)
- Western Grebe (20+, including some displaying courting behavior,
throwing back their heads and raising their wings in a kind of water-top
dance)
- Common Murre (8)
- Glacous-winged Gull
- Western Gull
- Mew Gull
- Canada Geese (2 sitting on top of some of the piling)
- American Crow (many flying overhead to area roosts, but one actually
staying in the area)
- Belted Kingfisher (one male)
- European Starling (20, some of them checking out the martin houses...)
- House Sparrow (5 also checking out the martin houses...)

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com/
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html