Digging around in the old journals to look at historical sightings in the Tacoma and Pierce County area, I'm finding a number of interesting observations by J.H. Bowles, an early Washington ornithologist. One of the comments is that magpies were "a regular and not uncommon winter visitor to the tide flats and prairies in the vicinity of Tacoma. Occasionally I have seen as many as fifteen or twenty in a flock, but usually not more than half a dozen are seen together."(from the Auk in 1911)

Other interesting mentions include a sighting of a group of Common Eiders which seems possible, given the details he relates, and two Black Rail which doesn't seem possible. He considered Brandt's Cormorant common in the Tacoma area but not Double-crested Cormorants which make me wonder if the populations were different there or if he wasn't paying attention.

Ed Swan
Vashon Island
www.theswancompany.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20060321/7d9db2b0/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6848 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20060321/7d9db2b0/attachment.jfif