I commented recently on the question of what makes someone a real birder, and I assume you all took the note in the vein intended. (Although I don't have a Yellow-throated Warbler on my life list, in spite of lots of intense searching in the East, I'm not going to run off twitching the one that's appeared locally because I want to see the species in its native habitat, and ideally several birds at once.) I just want to tell you all what it's like to sit here at my desk looking at Long Lake, outside Lacey, on a sunny February afternoon. Much of the lake is a mirror of the distant shoreline, and the calm water is occupied by several Bufflehead, a little flock of Coots scurrying about, and several Wigeons mixed in with the Coots. I love watching the Buffleheads fly in, applying the brakes by standing upright with their breasts against the wind, sliding across the water and then settling in by relaxing their bodies. Occasionally a cormorant flies by--always Double-crested here. Two families of Canada Geese came by a few minutes ago, exuding a calm nobility as if all other creatures must acknowledge their right to cruise unmolested as befits royalty. A Pied-billed Grebe is fishing in front of the house now--no, two of them. I haven't seen one with a fish yet. At any moment, one of the local Bald Eagles might appear, sailing majestically in front of our windows, fishing or ducking. We've had dozens of Common Mergansers lately, though I don't see any today; you can tell what they are from afar, with their brilliant ivory-white bodies gleaming in the sunlight, a subtly different shape from the male Buffleheads. Ah, here come some more Cormorants. Of course, the Mallards are here in large numbers; we always see several females in the spring with their broods, and so many are surviving now that we're almost being overrun with them. They come up to the big feeder and compete with the squirrels and one another. All is calm, beautiful, peaceful. I hope the views out your windows are as good as ours. (Oh, an Eagle just flew over and all the ducks took to the air for a while, but now they're settling back in.)

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503

________________________________

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu on behalf of Mike Patterson
Sent: Tue 2/1/2005 1:33 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] PHOTOS: Yellow-throated Warbler at Seaside, OR



The YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER put on quite a show once it was
located. It posed nicely for about 8 observers and I managed
to get some identifiable video. Captures are available at:

http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/obrc/ytwa20050131.html

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

If you want to end war and stuff, you've got to sing loud
- Arlo Guthrie
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