Subject: [Tweeters] Lazuli Bunting/Western Kingbird family at Duvall
Date: Jul 24 21:42:35 2006
From: Thomas Mansfield - tmiseattle at msn.com


Despite the high temperatures on Sunday and Duvall's annual "Sand Blast
Festival" (complete with ultra-light rides that assured the birds around
McDougall Park were in hiding), I took a drive along West Snoqualmie River
Road (the old Roetsencinder Road). At 2.1 miles north from the intersection
of the Woodinville-Duvall Road, I spotted a Western Kingbird on the power
line. Pulled over to watch, all the while hearing a very distinctive call
from a cedar tree along the river bank. The Kingbird flew into the cedar
and singer flew to the next cedar south and was fully visible: a handsome
male Lazuli Bunting. I spent an hour watching as the Bunting and Kingbird
(joined by a second) took turns dancing back and forth between the cedars
and power lines. After much "baby sounds," three birds flew out of the
first cedar and joined the Kingbirds on the line - they were, perhaps,
fledglings since their profiles were about the same but their coloration was
duller and more brown looking in the bright sun. When one of the Kingbirds
flew across the river to a prominent snag, the three brownish birds flew
over and joined it. Meanwhile, the Bunting reclaimed his territory in the
first cedar and sang his head off...until the Kingbirds flew back across the
river and pushed him back to the southern cedar and some brambles. In all,
I spent nearly two hours observing the Western Kingbirds and the Lazuli
Bunting - both first sightings for me...and on the same day/neighborhood.

Tom Mansfield, Seattle
tmiseattle at msn.com