Dennis, are you sure you're not describing some kind of wish-fulfillment
that gives you intensely realistic dreams every night? Or is it a kind of
magical Birding Heaven that only a few Specially Blessed people have access
to--maybe only those with Ph.D.s in ornithology, for instance?

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Paulson [mailto:dpaulson at ups.edu]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 9:31 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: tanager throngs, wet waxwings


Hello, tweeters.

I've been absent from my office another day, and now I'm back on
Friday morning. There seem to be even MORE Western Tanagers here
than on Monday and Wednesday. There are DOZENS of them flying
around. It's absolutely mind-boggling to see a brilliant red,
yellow, and black male fly straight at me across the courtyard and
land right in front of my third-floor window. Then I realize there
are a half-dozen in the tree already. There seem to be more females
than males today, but there are plenty of males, and so far I haven't
seen a first-year bird (dull wings). The visual flux is enhanced by
dozens of Cedar Waxwings that are buzzing around now, flying over as
singles or small flocks, crossing paths with the tanagers. Today for
the first time there are smaller migrants with them, as I've seen
several unidentified warblers fly across, and there is a Warbling
Vireo in front of me right now. It's very hard to get to work with
this bird activity.

I finally got clued in about why there were so many birds right in
front of me when a Pine Siskin landed in the tree, obviously very wet
and just out of its bath. I looked down in the courtyard and saw
there was a foot-wide puddle at the edge of the grass from a leaking
pipe. The puddle was full of Cedar Waxwings, so I went downstairs
and watched them for a few minutes. Dozens and dozens of them bathed
with abandon as I watched, filling the puddle and splashing water up
to several feet away. There were surely more than 50 present, and
perhaps a lot more than that, as birds were constantly flying into
the trees and others flying away. Some drank from accessory puddles
or directly from the water that had been splashed on the grass like a
heavy deposit of dew. Several Western Tanagers came down to drink
but couldn't deal with the waxwing fervor. The waxwings even had the
nerve to land above me and shake the remnants of their bath right on
my head!

While watching them, I heard a nearby Olive-sided Flycatcher, putting
the cap on a peak experience. Whether at home or at work, I always
feel that I'm probably missing something by not looking out the
window, but I guess you can't go through life looking out the window.

But I have to add that now, probably 20 minutes after I started
writing this, I don't see any birds at all! Birds can present
ephemeral phenomena.
--
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html