Hi Tweets

Just got back in. My wife sent in our report from the field. A few more
words on the Scissor-tailed. We had rain all the way to Moses Lake and
it rained until about 2 this afternoon. Dave Beaudette, Mary Frances
Mathis and I (and another birder - I never did get the name) were all
looking. We arrived about 8:45 and the bird had not been seen. We looked
in all the "usual" reported spots until about 10:30, when we stopped to
talk to Dave. He said he had a good candidate on the fence line about
200 yards away. Mary Frances got an extremely brief look before the bird
dropped out of sight, but agreed it looked favorable. We watched the
area for about 20 minutes with no sign of the bird. Dave started walking
across the field. We, having left at 5:30 went in to town for a quick
lunch. When we got back at 11:45 Dave said he had found the bird over by
the fence line. At that point the fence line dropped below visibility
from the road, and the bird was working from the top of the fence and
from the ground. We went back out and walked the fence line.

Again, the directions are from the intersection of Tyndall and Randolph,
go north on Randolph about 0.7 mile from the substation at the
intersection. You will come to a small utility builiding on the right,
and across the street will be a Windemere real estate sign. At that
point the perimeter fence turns to the west. Walk along the fence, on
the old dirt service road past three bunkers. About 75 yards beyond the
bunkers the fence line dips into a swale and another cross fence joins
it. The Scissor-tailed was working along that area, perching either on
the top three barb wires or on the ground.

We watched the bird for about 20 minutes getting very nice looks. It is
a pretty bird with white/gray white head, black bill and black area thru
the eye, peachy pink (at least under the subdued light we had) breast,
belly and flanks, brownish back, dark (black?) wings with whitish
feather edges, black tail with white/peachy-pink outer tail feathers.

Have fun, and explore the area generally.

Good birding

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville Wa
bellasoc at isomedia.com