Greetings All

Bill Tweit, Bruce LaBar and I had an excellent day in Clark and Cowlitz Counties.
A Loggerhead Shrike was actively hunting in the fields between the parking lot at road's end and Post Offic Lake.

A Palm Warbler was in the brush across the street from the Black Phoebe site at Vancouver Lake Park (no phoebe though).

Along that same road, there was a mixed flock of white-cheeked geese that contained a very high proportion of parvipes/taverneri with some minima. In that flock was a very dark goose, sized like parvipes/taverneri, with much white on head and neck and some white flecks on body. The bird's body color was that of a Blue Goose, and the head/neck pattern looked like a Blue Goose x white-cheeked goose hybrid, a conclusion that has been backed by Sibley, Mike O'Brien, and Bruce Deuel. Of course, you never know 100% for sure.

Looking at that flock was bewildering. Most of the birds were somewhat dark chested but had the head shape I'd more link with parvipes. The chest color was more that of taverneri. I've had this happen with individuals, shrugged my shoulders, and left them unidentified. But an entire flock of 100 or more birds? Scary. For the most part, I studied white-cheeked geese in the Willamette Valley and Clark County. Most of the darker breasted birds had smaller heads, steeper foreheads-- what you'd expect from taverneri. But the number of confusing birds was large, and there were some that even baffled me between taverneri and minima. The most satisfying moment was when a flock of darkish breasted, smallish headed geese went near a couple slightly larger, paler, longer-biled geese and then joined a flock of clearly smaller, even more round-headed minima. At least those I felt good about as taverneri. Interestingly, Dusky Canadas have mostly cleared out.

Fox Sparrows are largely gone, though a few are still about and we had one Slate-colored with 2 Sooties along Woodland Dike Road.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA
SGMlod at aol.com