Subject: [Tweeters] Tacoma area migrants 5-8-06
Date: May 8 20:57:03 2006
From: Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan - godwit513 at msn.com


Hello Tweets,

Today we had another push of migrants through or over our Fircrest yard with several new additions to our 2006 yard list. The day started out good with small movements of passerines through the morning,but slowing up during the middle of the day,then additional movements noted during the mid evening specifically from our front yard. Our most significant migrant of the day was a nice,bright NASHVILLE WARBLER observed this morning amongst a group of 3-4 Wilson's Warblers in out large Paper Birch tree. This represented our 4th Nashville Warbler record for our yard! This evening at 7:15pm a group of 15 Western Tanagers ascended into our tall poplar trees,then as quick as they flew in they all flew out from the backside of the trees and were undoubtedly in active migration. Our raptor highlight of the day went to 3 migrating Turkey Vultures that drifted northeast over our yard during the mid afternoon,which was our personal firsts of the year for our yard.

Yesterday we heard our first of the season Black-headed Grosbeak near our yard then this morning had a nice,bright male visit our front yard to inspect our set of feeders. After hearing the presence of the bird yesterday we quickly put out a tube feeder with a large tray especially for the Black-headed Grosbeaks. When we finally saw the male Black-headed Grosbeak today we watched as he inspected 3 separate feeders including 2 sunflower seed feeders and 1 suet feeder. We expected that the bird would go right away to a seed feeder,but the bird surprised us and hopped right onto the suet feeder that has really attracted alot of birds in our yard. Of course we plan on taking the suet feeder down when temperatures warm up since the feeder is filled with a homemade recipe based with peanut butter and lard. The bird just sat on the perch and took several beak's full of suet and was the first time we have experienced that species using our suet feeders and perhaps it's probably nothing too unusual,but it was new for us! The bird did eventually use both of our seed feeders this evening,then sang loudly from a perch in our poplar trees.

A list of other species of interest(not including our regular species)from our yard today included the following:

1 Great Blue Heron(observed flying high overhead during the late afternoon)
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
2 adult Bald Eagles
4 Red-tailed Hawks
10+ Band-tailed Pigeons
4-5 Anna's Hummingbirds
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Bushtits(at our suet feeder)
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
9 Cedar Waxwings
3 Warbling Vireos
1 Black-throated Gray Warbler
2 Spotted Towhees
1 White-crowned Sparrow(heard singing only)
4 Brown-headed Cowbirds(observed as flyovers only)
1 Purple Finch
3 Red Crossbills
2 Am.Goldfinches
3-4 Evening Grosbeaks



Good yard birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com