Subject: [Tweeters] update on Tenino redpoll
Date: Dec 10 11:49:03 2004
From: Paul Hicks - PHicks at accessgrace.org


Tweets,

Friday morning I made a quick check for the siskin flock which last week hosted a REDPOLL. No problem locating the flock (~200), but it is skittish enough that even with point-blank views there was no time to scan the whole flock before they took off again. No redpoll was seen. History: redpoll has been seen three times: twice, about an hour apart, on Saturday morning, Dec. 4, and again by Keith Brady on Sunday morning, Dec. 5, after an hour of searching/waiting. Several birders missed it Saturday afternoon and on Monday morning, Dec. 6. Directions: Just east of Tenino on SR507 (toward Rainier/Yelm) turn right on Churchill(/Mull) Rd, park at the 1st pullout and at the 2nd pullout access the Heernett Foundation Property/nature reserve (birder friendly). The flock hangs out from around the pond about 1/4 mile in, including along the road upslope from the pond, to the stands of alder near the pullouts, along the rail-to-trail eastward and across the hiway along Mull Rd to the north.

Both Keith Brady and I saw enough (or too little) of the bird to be left, independently, with a questionmark as to whether this might be a Hoary Redpoll. A definitive observation is still lacking.

Good birding!

Paul Hicks
Tenino
phicks AT accessgrace.org