Hello Tweets,

Today we conducted our portion of the Tacoma CBC(Area 8)with a total of 86 of the 127 species tallied during the entire count. The weather was great,but cold for us,although several other counters experienced fog and windy conditions. The main theme of this year's count was slow birding conditions all day for a few groups with an overall lack of many waterbird species(with the emphases on alcids)as well as NO Pine Siskins! Perhaps many other CBC's will experience a lack of Pine Siskins,as it seems it really is a "down" year for that species. Our day was quite active with good numbers of most songbirds,as well as several key highlights including a few surprises. We just wish to pos our highlights in case others might be interested without writing too much. Our most noteworthy sightings for our specific area included the following:

1 female Eurasian Wigeon
1 American Kestrel
3 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 RUFFED GROUSE
15 Virginia Rails(high count)
1 Spotted Sandpiper
1 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER(new record for our personal area)
4 Wilson's Snipes
1 Western Gull
5 Mourning Doves
1 Great Horned Owl
1 Northern Saw-whet Owl
23 Anna's Hummingbirds(high count for our area)
2 Hairy Woodpeckers
3 Western Scrub Jays
2 Hermit Thrushes
3 Cedar Waxwings
5 Hutton's Vireos
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
10 Townsend's Warblers
80 "Sooty"Fox Sparrows(high count)
5 Lincoln's Sparrows
2 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS
3 Purple Finches


Good birding,

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