Hey Tweeters,



My e-mail server has been acting up lately, but hopefully this message will
go through in a somewhat timely fashion.



It was a marvelously active morning birding on the Foothills Trail south of
my house (8:25 to 11:15am). This path is just off the Orting-South Prairie
Hwy and there is some great habitat with willows, fields, and cottonwoods
along various streams. We started at the small trailhead at the tiny town
of Crocker, then walked northeast towards South Prairie about 3 or 4 miles.
There were great numbers of vireos and thrushes, warblers and tanagers in
all the bushes. In a single area on the way back, every branch seemed to
have an empidonax flycatcher on it. It was really a bit of a fallout, quite
unexpected with the joys of a warm calm day.



Among 63 species were these:



Green-winged Teal (8)-flyby

Turkey Vulture (1)-soaring

Cooper's Hawk (1)-adult female

Glaucous-winged Gull (10)-waiting for the spawning salmon to die

Band-tailed Pigeon (12)

Vaux's Swift (80)-over the Carbon River

Red-breasted Sapsucker (3)-including a juv

Downy Woodpecker (5)

Hairy Woodpecker (1)

Pileated Woodpecker (1)-heard

Willow Flycatcher (19)

HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER (4)

Pacific-slope Flycatcher (9)

Hutton's Vireo (5)

Warbling Vireo (40+)

RED-EYED VIREO (2)-one singing; one seen exceptionally well at eye level!

Common Raven (1)-heard

Violet-green Swallow (120)

Barn Swallow (80)

Black-capped Chickadee (35+)

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (4)



Brown Creeper (13)

Winter Wren (3)

Marsh Wren (1)

Golden-crowned Kinglet (10)

Swainson's Thrush (20)

HERMIT THRUSH (1)

Cedar Waxwing (130+)

Orange-crowned Warbler (2)

Yellow Warbler (1)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)

Black-throated Gray Warbler (3)

Townsend's Warbler (2)

Common Yellowthroat (16)

Wilson's Warbler (8)

Western Tanager (11)

Fox Sparrow (1)-my first of season

Lincoln's Sparrow (1)-my first of the season

White-crowned Sparrow (2)

Black-headed Grosbeak (3)

Western Meadowlark (1)

Purple Finch (2)

Pine Siskin (50)

Evening Grosbeak (8)



Butterflies - Red Admirable, Common Ringlet, Woodland Skipper, Mylitta
Crescent, Great Spangled Fritillary (several days ago)



Yesterday before noon at the nearly dried up (both in terms of water and
activity) Thomas Pond in Kent, there was a juv Pectoral Sandpiper calling
and an American Pipit. One Western Sandpiper and three Least. Sadly we
didn't make a stop at the Boeing north pond. Yesterday evening we watched
for swifts at their old chimney in Enumclaw, but saw none at all. I wonder
what happened.



The only other evening I saw Common Nighthawks over my yard this fall was
August 29, when four were seen.



Cheers and good birding,

--

Charlie Wright

Sumner, WA

charlie at birdwright.com