Hello Everyone,

Yesterday I was on a field trip with my class at the Julia Butler Hansen
National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is located along the lower Columbia River
near Cathlamet, Washington. We were outside on a viewing deck over looking a
wetland/fields. I thought I saw a male Northern Harrier off in the distance low
over the fields. It then came quite a bit closer and higher up and started
hovering about 50 feet in the air and stayed like that. I realized it was an adult
White-tailed Kite! I thought that was pretty unusual but maybe they are more
common there than I think. It eventually took off and I got an even better look
at it. There were also quite a few red-tails, one turkey vulture and an
unidentified accipiter. I also spotted an adult black merlin. I got a really great
look at him because he landed about 30 feet from the deck and I was able to
put a scope on him. A Scrub Jay was doing its best to get him to leave by
repeatedly pecking at the branch he was on.

Anyway, just thought I would share my interesting raptor day!

Simone Cook
Seattle/Olympia, WA
ZINGIE at aol.com