Salutations, Tweeters,

I rallied at 3:30 AM this morning (Mon, June 12th) and left my house on
Bainbridge Island at 4:00 AM, so as to beat the Monday-morning rush-hour traffic.
I arrived at the confluence of logging road 1901 and 1909 at 6:30 AM. I
heard distant singing of the Bay-breast as I stepped out of the car, but it
took a half hour before the bird came close enough to see. It came in close to
the edge of 1901, dropped down to eye level briefly and then sat on top of a
Grand Fir and sang for a full 4 minutes. I even managed a few digiscope
photos. There was quite a chorus in the vicinity, including Robins, Swainson's
Thrushes, Willow and Hammond's Flycatchers, Hutton's Vireos, Juncos, and
Hermit Warblers all with "real" songs!! On the return to Bainbridge, I stopped at
Melville St. west of Tenino. The Clay-colored Sparrow that many others have
observed was sitting on a phone wire about 1/2 mi. from the turn onto
Melville St. at a driveway with a "For Sale" sing posted. The driveway was at the
end of a large Scotch Broom field. The sparrow was singing its heart out,
and allowed some close digiscope photos. A Green Heron flew in front of the
car as I passed through Toledo along the Cowlitz River before getting on I-5 to
head north.
Good birding,

George Gerdts
_geopandion at aol.com_ (mailto:geopandion at aol.com)