Hi Tweets, I'll start off with the Krider's RTHA. Today, was the third time that I have seen this unusually colored hawk sitting on an utility line that crosses Highway 12 just west of the westernmost crossroads of Monte-Brady Road. I was on my way back from Hoquiam and finally had the chance to get off the highway to check this bird out. Initially, my first stop scared the hawk off the line and it flew east down the highway to another utility line. I backtracked and got a great look at the bird. It has a nearly white head with a pure white breast. Its back is mottled gray and white. When it flew again, the tail was nearly all white with a small amount of red near the tip all across the tail. The bird matches the picture of an adult Krider's RTHA in Sibley's. I took some pictures of it as well. If you want to try for it, the utility line crosses the highway right near a billboard sign that has lighthouse on it's east-facing side and a Les Schwab sign on its west-fac!
ing side.
I have seen it on that same line three times now in a span of 3 weeks. I hope my pictures turn out well!

Also, I started the day off with a walk out the Sandpiper trail at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Hoquiam. It was cold this morning and the boardwalk was real slick. High tide was right around 11am. Here's what I saw from the parking area to the end of the boardwalk:

Great Blue Heron 2
Canada/Cackling Goose 66
Mallard 25
Gadwall 125
American Wigeon 10
Northern Pintail 50
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle 1
Peregrine Falcon 1 - sitting on a piling the whole time I was there
Black-bellied Plover 75
Killdeer 1
Dunlin 3000
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Hutton's Vireo 1- heard singing
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 - one singing
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Marsh Wren 10 - singing
European Starling 40
American Robin 5
Song Sparrow 15
House Sparrow 1

The lone Snow Goose is still present at the Hoquaim STP. Also, on a quick trip around the Brady Loop Rd. on the way home, I saw a sure sign of spring in a Red-tailed Hawk carrying a stick to its nest.

Good birding,

Tim O'Brien
Elma, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at yahoo.com




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