Subject: [Tweeters] Hooded Oriole at Magnolia and photos
Date: Jun 24 15:41:47 2006
From: Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan - godwit513 at msn.com


Hello Tweets,

Today we ventured up north to Seattle in search of the adult male HOODED ORIOLE that has been persisting in the Magnolia area. We arrived at the location at 8:30am along Magnolia Blvd. and parked our vehicle along the uphill portion of West Montfort Place. We soon gathered our equipment and proceeded just a short ways north of Montfort Place to a private dead end road along the west side of Magnolia Blvd. We presume this is the cul-de-sac many birders have been referring to in their postings,but anyhow to us it just seemed like as it is labeled a "private dead end road". We soon walked down the hill towards several homes and within a few minutes were viewing the striking adult male Hooded Oriole at 8:45am with very little effort involved. The bird was first viewed in one of two pine trees immediately next to the address of 2587,then within a minute or so the bird quickly flew off to another pine tree further north,but viewable from the same stance. We immediately learned for ourselves just how "skulky",secretive and shy this bird was,but we felt very fortunate to obtain several photos of the bird during the first hour of our visit. The bird always remained quite high in one of two of he pine trees along the private road across from the residence that had a large tube feeder hanging from the railing. This tube feeder was always full of House Sparrows,starlings and a few Brown-headed Cowbirds and Am. Crows so we really didn't give much attention to it beyond that. The Hooded Oriole never attempted to use the feeder even when there was no activity on it and the bird more or less was always alone and always very jumpy! The bird did call quite often at times giving different notes that would usually be easy to key in on,but at other times sounding more faint and quiet.

During the 1st hour we were joined by Igor Uhrovic,then by 10am a few more birders had arrived but the bird was even more secretive and nervous acting and as a result sightings of the bird were fewer with nearly glimpses of the bird. During the time between 10am-12pm the bird was only seen twice during an hour duration,when the bird would fly in from an unknown location remaining silent,then quickly flying off to other trees north of the residence of 2591 along the same private dead end road. The 2nd and last sighting before many of us left at 12pm was the best of the 2 sightings when the bird flew in from the south then landed in trees behind the property of 2591 before quickly dropping into thick vegetation. Within 2 or 3 minutes 4 of us raced to a vantage point along the road and waited for the bird to reappear and within a few more minutes the bird popped up after some short "pishing" and posed for 3 seconds before flying off to the south to another bush,where a few more glimpses of the bird were made. From this location the bird again flew off to the south to a large poplar-type tree,where it perched for another few seconds on a branch low in the tree before finally flying off to an unknown location to the north.

All in all we got some good views early during our visit and felt fortunate by that since this bird is so jumpy. Perhaps we had good luck early on with less commotion,but at any rate it was a great and striking bird to see no matter what the views! The general area is quite tight wit only a small narrow road to stand on,but we all managed between the 8 of us. We also spoke with several property owners along the road,who all seemed very interested about the Hooded Oriole with a few residents that didn't even know about the bird's presence! On a side note none of us needed a spotting scope to view the bird since the bird never stayed too long at one given location and since the bird always remained quite high in most trees.

We have placed 5 fairly decent photos of the Hooded Oriole onto our website for your viewing,which can be accessed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos/

During our warm and sunny visit we also encountered a good number of other bird species as we watched and waited for the Hooded Oriole. Our main efforts during this time were made solely along the dead end private road since that is where the bird was entirely present. A few of the 30 species encountered from this location included the following:

1 Osprey
1 female-type NORTHERN HARRIER(observed flying east to west over Magnolia across Puget Sound towards Bainbridge Island)
5-6 Anna's Hummingbirds
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Bushtits
1 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 Orange-crowned Warbler



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at msn.com