Subject: [Tweeters] RE: Unusual Winter Visitors and Directions-Kent Ponds
Date: Jan 12 14:32:50 2005
From: Johnson, Mary - MJohnson at becu.org


Regarding your query about seeing the Downy Woodpecker and Varied Thrush
for the first time in winter . . . I have always seen Downies the most
in winter, although I see or hear them throughout the year. To the best
of my knowledge, the Varied Thrush normally is not present in Puget
Sound backyards during the warmer months as they are nesting up in the
mountains then; I have only seen them during the winter when it turns
very cold. They usually arrive ahead of a snowstorm or cold snap, and I
often saw large flocks in my backyard when I lived in Orting, south of
Sumner in Pierce County. The only summer sighting I've had was in deep
forest near Money Creek campground off of Highway 2, east of Sultan. I
was really surprised to read that you had one all the way on Camano
Island--what a great sighting!

In response to the fantastic, concise directions to Kent Ponds: thank
you very much, and now I'm going to go flog myself with my binoculars.
I say this because until July I worked in an office building near the
corner of 212th and West Valley Highway. When I think of all the wasted
lunch hours that could have been spent birding the Kent Ponds!

Happy birding,
Mary Alice Johnson
Auburn, WA
mjohnson at becu.org



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