Hello Tweeters
I had a very fine day of birding in King County today. First surprise was
waking up to almost 4 inches of snow here in Bonney Lake. I decided to check
out the Gray-headed Junco visiting Sandy Daniels' feeders and yard between
Auburn and Enumclaw. I arrived there at 11:00 after pishing up an adult,
tan-striped White-throated Sparrow from a nearby farm. The GHJU finally
showed up at noon and was a wonderful sight indeed. Sandy's e-mail address
is ladyhawk707 at msn.com. Note that pretty much the only way to see this bird
is to view from her living room, so please be respectful. Thanks to Sandy
for being so tolerant.

I was able to get a couple semi-decent photos which I have posted at the
following link: http://flickr.com/photos/potoo

I spent the afternoon searching through the gulls at the Cedar River mouth
and Gene Coulon Park. In all, about 3000 birds showed up on the lake by
around 3:30. No adult Slaty-backeds were present. I found one bird that I
feel is a good Vega Gull, or the Siberian subspecies of Herring Gull. I took
one close-up photo before I concentrated on studying the bird in the field
along with Cameron Cox. I kept my eye on it off-and-on until I saw the bird
pick up with the rest of the flock. The rump was really white, with small,
light brown arrow-shapes. The bird had a well-defined broad black tailband
with significant white at the bases of the rectrices, though less so on the
inner ones. The one photo I did take is at the link above.

Cheers,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington