Today in the early PM I looked for the RUSTY BLACKBIRD at the White River
Mill east of the intersection of Hwy 167 and 277th south of Kent. No luck.
Decided to head for the Boeing Ponds in Kent on 59th St.

On the way I stopped at a flooded field on West Valley Hwy, north of 277th.
On the east side of the raod and just north of the pumpkin field were 20 LB
DOWITCHERS, 8 DUNLIN, 4 WILSON'S SNIPE and 10 KILLDEER.

On to the Boeing Ponds on 59th. It's actually a single pond now. It was
loaded with birds including 1 HORNED GREBE, and a young BRANT with GREAT
and CACKLING CANADA GEESE.

I returned to the mill for another shot at the rusty. At 3:00 2 MERLINS
chased every blackbird into the next county. Staying behind were 2
EUROPEAN STARLINGS and a single WESTERN MEADOWLARK sharing a wire perch.

In a few minutes the blackbirds very slowly began to return. In a short
time the numbers grew substantially. At 4:15 I had the perched female
RUSTY BLACKBIRD in the scope at 60 power for plenty of time to check all
field marks. Reddish cap, buffy supercilium, yellow eye, red edging to
feathers on back and wing and even the gray rump. All well seen.

The eye is not as bright yellow as the eye of a male brewer's. It's more
yellow/orange. The red coloring of the bird is subtle, not at all like the
obvious reddish RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS that are between plumages.

Look for the reddish cap set off by the buffy supercilium. If you have a
yellow eye bordered in black, you have the bird. I think this bird looks
very much like the fall female rusty on page 441 of the 3rd edition
National Geographic field guide.

Watch out for female brewer's that have a yellow eye. Last season I saw 3
of these at this location.

Today I saw the rusty at 4:15PM and Friday at 5:45PM.

Hopefully this bird will spend some time here and allow lots of folks to
see it.

It was a good day.

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA