Hello, tweets.

Today (11 July 2005) Molly Hukari and I found three Northern
Mockingbirds together at Horn Rapids Park at the Yakima Horn on the
Yakima River, ca 10 mi N Benton City. They were in the farthest tall
poplars from the park entrance (closest to the river), then flew into
dense shrubs near the river. Two were making typical mockingbird alarm
calls (that's how I located them), and the third was making peculiar
calls that I attributed to a young mockingbird. With three birds
together, there is no doubt in my mind that they bred there. I was
fortunate enough to find (along with Bob Sundstrom and Rick Droker) the
first breeding mockingbirds in Washington some years ago, and finding
another pair breeding really made my day!

I checked recent tweeters digest and found no mention of mockingbirds.
If everyone knew about these birds already, pardon my post; I haven't
looked at tweeters for several weeks.

Also found White-belted Ringtail (Erpetogomphus compositus) at Horn
Rapids Dam, a dragonfly that had not been seen in Washington since I
collected them in 1971 and 1972 at the Yakima River and Crab Creek.
This is a very significant dragonfly find.

Dennis Paulson
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Dennis Paulson & Netta Smith
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382