This morning I checked the pond at the end of Goodrich Rd. Waterfowl was
down bit, but the same shorebirds are still around, Black Bellied
Plovers and Dunlin. I had 2 Tundra Swans fly over, and counted 17 Snow
Geese in a large flock of Canada and Cackler Geese. Not quite as many as
Ken Knittle had out in Mayfield, but a very good number none the less,
especially in Lewis County. Also the American Kestrel was hunting along
the trail by the river. Finally, there were 14 Mew Gulls, 1 Ring-billed
Gull, and the rest of the gulls were Glaucous-winged/Western hybrids.
Another place I checked this morning was near the end of Johnson Rd.,
off of Reynolds Ave., next to a cemetary. There are alot of blackberry
brambles in this area, plus the all the fir trees in the cemetary. It
was quite a birdy place, mostly all common species, but there were
several Fox Sparrows, 2 Scrub Jays, and 3 Varied Thrushes to note.

After reading the posts from Bill Clemons and Joe Higbee, Sherry and I
went to Ridgefield for the Short-earred Owl, hoping to have the success
of seeing the owl close up. Sure enough, we spotted the owl in the last
stretch of the road about 3:00pm, drove up to the sign that it liked to
perch on, sat and waited. About 10 minutes later, the owl was back and
sat on the sign for about 15 minutes. We were only 25ft away from the owl.

Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia WA