Tweeters:

I found several first-of-season arrivals on a walk this morn around Tiny's
Land (our place in n. Lake Stevens). Highlights of 30 species present in
heavy forest and edge included a first HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER of the season,
an active, calling bird in company of another first of season, a
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER. Also my first this spring was a flyover
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD.

The Hammond's eclipsed the previous earliest here by a day, but was still
several days short of my earliest back in the 80s, an April 13 bird at UW.
I kind of expected to run into a Pacific-slope also today like the
Sullivans, especially since there have been something like 6-7 exceptionally
early reports since mid-March (!) from coastal BC sites, although until the
Sullivans' I'm not aware of any reports for WA, which seems odd, I haven't
checked on OR but I don't believe they had any until the last week either.
The warbler, meanwhile, was right on schedule here, but was later than a
Victoria, BC bird (April 13) and the Sullivans' on April 15.

Also present at our place today were 7 Rufous Hummingbirds (a high number
here), a number of lingering Varied Thrush, and 32 Red Crossbills.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com