Subject: [Tweeters] Redwing jinx, but found a lynx
Date: Mar 6 10:30:04 2005
From: Larry Schwitters - lpatters at ix.netcom.com


Tweeters,

Saturday we again took the wife to Olympia after the Redwing. By late
morning there was only one other birder working the area. He was a
pleasant, experienced guy from Minneapolis that had arrived just after
the bird had disappeared for the day. He was not going to give up
easily.

By mid afternoon Leora's skipping house work guilt feelings were
becoming stronger than her shame of being the only Washington resident
to have not observed the Redwing.

While she didn't find the bird, she got a look at something I believe
all you sharp eyed tweeters didn't notice. I've been bumping into
bobcats this winter but this is a better feline find, a huge Northern
Lynx. It was just south of the large locust tree where several of us
observed the Redwing a few days after Gene Revelas first announced the
bird. I guess it would be a much bigger deal if the lynx wasn't in a
cage. I don't know how happy it is, but it's sure fat. Hasn't anyone
else noticed this home zoo between Fourth and Harrison (2?) blocks east
of Plymouth?

We headed home leaving a solitary Minnesota birder slowly wandering the
sidewalks of West Olympia, his massive binoculars dangling from his neck
like some rotting albatross.

We hope he got the bird.

Larry and Leora Schwitters
Issaquah