Tired of being bored (bored of boredom?) and not in the mood for turning
more soil in the garden I headed out to the 'back 40' of N. Mason County
this morning.

Where the road passes the outlet for Rodney White Slough (.4 miles S. of the
Tahuya Lake access and on the west side of Belfair-Tahuya Rd) I found two
Gold-Crowned Warblers singing away in the bushes. A single playing of their
song on CD brought both birds within just a few yards allowing for great
views of them. There is something about the habitat around the slough that
seems very attractive to warblers in general as last Labor Day I sat there
for about an hour and counted 6 species of warblers passing through.

Further wanderings took me down to Dewatto where red-breasted mergansers
were everywhere. Several males were displaying to their intendeds while a
small bachelor group paddled about. All winter that bay has been good for
grebes and today was no different. Red-necked, horned and eared grebes were
paired up and riding out the windy weather in the sheltered bay formed by
the outlet of the Dewatto River. And the drive up the river to the Port of
Dewatto park was very pretty with yellow violets and trillium blooming. In
another week the landscape in that area will be pink with bleeding hearts.
Lots of violet-green swallows flitted about over the maples in the river
valley also. (Very colorful area when one thinks of all the colors in the
names of everything one sees in that area.)

And the icing on the cake was a single turkey vulture soaring over my house
when I got back home up on Bear Ridge. The slate colored juncoes are still
hanging out with the Oregon juncoes at the feeding station at home.
Hopefully they will stick around for the summer.

Happy birding.

Mary Hrudkaj
hrudkajm at hotmail.com
N. Mason/Tahuya

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