A northern waterthrush flew into a mist net at ~11:45 this morning during fall bird banding at St. Cloud Recreation Area, Skamania County, WA. The mist net was located in a swath of willow-false indigo-Reed canary grass between the Columbia River and a hardwood forest.

We (Stuart Johnston, CJ Flick, and Phil Gaddis) keyed the northern waterthrush as a hatch year by the amount of ossified skull, the presence of at least one filoplume on nape, featherless thigh and underside wing, rusty tips on tertials, very subtle rusty edging on greater and primary coverts, lack of pale spots on outer tail feathers, and yellowish-buff supercilium. It also had yellowish wash on its underparts, and its undertail covert pattern matched that of a northern waterthrush.


Catherine J. Flick
White Salmon, WA
mail to: stewart at gorge.net