Hi Tweets,

The next time I go enjoy a morning of witnessing Spring migration over Point
no Point I am going to try to remember to bring my reclining lawn chair.
After an hour and a half of looking in the skies above the point, I realized
my neck was kind of stiff. It was worth it though. The skies were mostly
clear with some wispy, high clouds and there was no winds between 7:30 and
9:30 this morning. The conditions may have caused some of the migrants to be
high and out of sight, but many came in low enough for good views. The
number of migrants was not significant, but the variety was quite nice.

Two events were exceptionally cool to me. At one point, 6 male Bullock's
Orioles (one was a 1st year male) seemingly dropped out of the sky and
landed in the low shrubbery just south of the lighthouse. Talk about a
splash of color! The other fun thing was seeing and counting 11 species of
birds all in one small clump of alders. The alder clump is adjacent to the
public access entrance to the old boat house/trailer area. Four warblers
(Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped, Yellow, & Common Yellowthroat), Warbling
Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Savannah Sparrow, Black-headed Grosbeak,
Bullock's Oriole, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and American Goldfinch were in
this clump during a 10 minute watch.

Here is a tally of some of the migrants I counted during my two hours (not
counting the ones in the alder clump):
3 Sharp-shinned Hawks
2 Western Kingbirds
4 Cedar Waxwings
8 Bullock's Orioles
25 Western Tanagers
1 Yellow-headed Blackbird (actually perched on the wires for a while)
1 Black-headed Grosbeak
1 Townsend's Solitaire
1 Purple Martin
250 Yellow-rumped Warblers
5 Orange- crowned Warblers
1 Wilson's Warbler

I just may have to go out there a few more times this Spring!

Cheers,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island, WA
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com