Subject: Elma yard birds and more (Grays Harbor Co.)
Date: Aug 19 10:08:05 2004
From: Tim OBrien - kertim7179 at yahoo.com


This morning my yard was quite busy with bird activity. A couple Red-breasted Nuthatches and several Chestnut-backed Chickadees were visiting one of my feeders. Also, I spotted three different woodpeckers around the yard. A Pileated Woodpecker flew in to take a few chunks out of one of the fir trees, a Northern Flicker was perched high in a tree in the neighborhood, and a Red-breasted Sapsucker was sneaking its way up another fir tree in the yard. The sapsucker's red head was very worn making the red very hard to pick out. I wonder if it may have been a juvenile. A new yard bird and a long sought county bird for me was a single Brown Creeper I spotted moving up another tree in the yard. Western Tanager, Steller's Jay, American Robin, and European Starling are some of the other birds I saw in and around the yard today also.

Yesterday afternoon, I wandered around the Chehalis Wildlife area (Schouweiler Rd. wetland) just outside of Elma. It was quite windy which seemed to hamper the bird activity. There was one Pied-billed Grebe family swimming about and I spotted a couple Wood Ducks. Two Osprey were present near the nest snag on the western side of the wildlife area. Cedar Waxwings were busy catching flying insects all over. Overall, it was pretty quiet.

On a side note, the Osprey nest at Vance Creek county park in Elma has fallen apart. I noticed that it was in pretty bad shape about a week ago. It appeared that the snag its built on had broken apart near the top where the nest is causing the nest to lose its support. There was still some nest material left a week ago, but yesterday I looked at it again and now there is nothing left of the nest. Two Osprey were perched on top of the snag yesterday with one presumably a juvenile feeding on something. Glad to see that the Osprey weren't too phased by this.

Good birding,

Tim O'Brien
Elma, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at yahoo.com



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