Hello Tweets,

We have placed 3 new photos onto our website of recent spring sightings including the Pacific-slope Flycatcher taken in our backyard on the 17th of April. The other two additions are of the Mountain Chickadee taken at Luhr Beach and the female Mountain Bluebird along Brady Loop Rd. with both species taken yesterday. The Mountain Bluebird was taken at a fair distance in a private field,so quality is quite poor. The photo of the Pacific-slope Flycatcher is "grainy" and conditions were quite dark,but it is proof to species. Our photos can be viewed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/april05photos/ . The Pacific-slope Flycatcher remained all day in our backyard on the 17th and was occasionally heard singing and calling from often dense cover and we also had a "Sooty"Fox Sparrow that made a brief visit to our yard that same day.

Today, we encountered a fairly productive morning from our yard with the addition of a fly-over female Am.Kestrel,which was totally unexpected given that we live in the center of a residential community! A brief yard "sit" after viewing the Am.Kestrel produced a fly-over Double-crested Cormorant,adult Cooper's Hawk and a Sharp-shinned Hawk! We also viewed a group of 9 Evening Grosbeaks that made a brief visit in a large conifer tree across the street from our yard. Later in the day a single Rock Pigeon made a fly-over heading north,which is very uncommon for our yard. In addition we currently have a nesting pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches occupying one of our several nestboxes,as well as both Anna's(resident)and Rufous Hummingbirds using our hummingbird feeders. A Hutton's Vireo has been heard calling/singing everyday for almost 2 weeks in our neighborhood and within the past 3 days has been coming faithfully to our front yard birdbath,which could actually involve 2 birds.


Sincerely,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net