Today a trusting group of Tahoma Audubon birders braved the weather gods to tour the Skokomish River delta in Mason County. We demonstrated once again that spring migrations can be more fun than the fall. We toured this same route 6 months ago, and got 6 more birds this time. We were treated to great (long) looks at a soaring sub-adult EAGLE, RED BREASTED SAPSUCKERS and a small flock of BONAPARTE'S GULLS in full, "black headed" breeding plumage, but the real treat was a VERY co-operative PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER that stayed put until the whole group got good long looks, and the gang had plenty of time to pull out the field guides and debate the ID to everyone's satisfaction!
In terms of numbers, there were tons of TREE and VIOLET GREEN SWALLOWS, more DOWNY WOODPECKERS than we are used to seeing, and high numbers of GREAT BLUE HERONS. There were also plenty of RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS to delight the eye.
All that plus a 4 warbler day tells us that the migration is on!

Good birding,
-Rolan



Rolan Nelson
Fircrest, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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