Hullo, all of you out there in Tweeterland,

I made a brief visit to Illahee SP in East Bremerton today. Cloudy, damp,
bad light, but at least it wasn't raining!

The most interesting thing I saw was an encounter between a Red-breasted
Sapsucker and a Douglas Squirrel. Both were on the trunk of a cedar tree,
the squirrel about 6' above the bird. The bird began its irregular-cadenced
drilling at the tree, whereupon the squirrel charged down the tree at the
RBSA. The bird skittered to its right; squirrel nosed at the area the bird
had been working on. RBSA scooted up the tree, squirrel raced up so it was
again above the bird, and the pattern repeated itself. This went on for
about 10 min., and gave me a great opportunity to watch the RBSA jump up the
tree, look at how it used its toes and tail, etc. nybody know if this type
squirrel-sapsucker behavior is common?

Chestnut-backed Chickadees are almost as numerous as Black-capped at the
part, at least this time of year. I enjoyed sitting at an empty campsite
and listening to/comparing their calls, with the CBCH's noticeably rougher.

Birds seen/heard, in the order I can remember them:

CB and BC Chickadees
Pileated Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker (female)
Red-shafted Northern Flickers
Golden-crowned Kinglets
Ruby-crowned Kinglet/Hutton's Vireo -
couldn't get a good enough look;
RCs are more summertime birds, aren't they??
Red-breasted Nuthatches
Steller's Jay
Bushtits
Song Sparrow (1 singing)
American Robins (1 singing)
Dark-eyed Juncos
_____ Thrush; heard it "whit," so assume Swainson's, but...
Surf Scoters
Common Goldeneye
Gull sp. (bathing)
Am Wigeon
More waterfowl but scope at home...

Good birding,
Mary

Mary Klein
Bremerton WA
CelloBird at seanet.com