I believe that there was also an earlier post about a Mountain Chickadee and
I'd like to note my pleasant experience with one that visited my apartment.

I lived in a complex in Central Kent and had several feeders in my enclosed
patio for a period of about nine years. I had a black sunflower seed feeder
that had a constant flow of Black-capped Chickadees and in fact a wetlands
biologist friend of mine told me that the increase in numbers and the better
appearance of them was probably do to this feeder. Anyway, the BCC's would
always go to the feeder and rarely to the ground as would the occasional
Chestnut-backed Chicadee. Then one day just about two years ago I saw what
I thought was a Black-capped Chickadee feeding exclusively on the ground.
It paid a few visits before I realized that it wasn't a BCC, but identified
it in one of the birding books as a Mountain Chickadee because of the faint
white eyebrow. This bird became a regular visitor, 3 and 4 times a day,
spending it's time exclusively on the ground, and was there from about late
November through the next February. I enjoyed this bird a great deal
because it was a regular daily visitor, and in Birds of Seattle is listed as
rare in Seattle. My apartment was in the middle of several other apartment
complexes along with many business in Kent, and not "rural" at all. Also,
this bird did not associate with any of the BCC's which would often arrive
while the MC was there.

Jim Brewster
Tacoma
BrewsHome at thewiredcity.net


Randy Hill wrote:

This morning we had a couple of surprises while mist-netting in Columbia
NWR. A Black-bellied Plover flew over calling, a bit of a rarity for the
refuge. Our big surprise was a new refuge record, a Mountain Chickadee, in
one of our nets. There were a few Golden-crowned Kinglets along the Crab
Creek Trail also, but we have them much of the year in town.

Randy Hill
Othello