Hi Tweets,

I returned to the Dry Side yesterday to get rained into my car at the Nile
Burn. No sweat. That's what the Sunday paper is for. Twenty minutes later
it stopped and I got in two and half good hours of wandering the Burn and
seeing all sorts of interesting birds. However, whilst whiling away the
downpour with the paper, a tweeter caught my eye as it zoomed past the
windshield and landed on a rock in plain view. Hmmm. Kinda looks like
something or other, but not quite this and not quite that. Saw one or two
more as I wandered the Burn. Then went back to the car to peruse that
delightful county census "The Birds of Yakima County, Washington"
(Stepniewski, 1999). So, I learned, I was in the land of hybridized
Townsend's/Hermit Warblers and that's pretty much what I saw. What a great
reference book. I'd willingly buy another bookcase to have such a quality
reference for each county. So now I have learned that I go south of Mt.
Adams to look for the pure Hermit Warbler. Well I'll be in that area of the
state in a couple of weeks looking for an Acorn Woodpecker so I'm going to
keep my eye out for the pure Hermit Warbler. A question: how do listers
count hybrids? Are they two-fers?

Regards,

Carol Riddell
Edmonds