Subject: [Tweeters] Tropical Kingbird YES, Nov. 22
Date: Nov 23 15:39:13 2006
From: Wayne C. Weber - contopus at telus.net


Tweeters,

Yesterday, Nov. 22, I managed to find the TROPICAL KINGBIRD at
its usual location near the north end of Magnuson Park in Seattle, after
scouring the area for almost 2 hours.

I arrived about 9:00 AM, but did not find the kingbird until about 10:50
AM. In fact, I had left the park to briefly scour the residential areas
around Inverness Drive, NW of the park, in case the kingbird had
decided to move to that area. Having no luck, I returned to the gravel
pullout
on Sand Point Way immediately west of Building #11 for one last try.
I had hardly stepped out of my car when the kingbird appeared, perched
on top of the Himalayan blackberries between Building #11 and Sand
Point Way, and called loudly. It remained there briefly, giving me
a good look at the bright yellow underparts (including the breast),
olive-gray back, and dark grayish-brown tail lacking white sides,
and called about 3 more times. However, after less than 2 minutes,
it flew off at least 300 yards to the south along Sand Point Way,
disappeared from view, and I was unable to relocate it.

There were a few other interesting birds in the NW corner of Magnuson
Park. In with a flock of BUSHTITS and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS,
I found one ORANGE-CROWNED and one TOWNSEND'S WARBLER--
neither particularly rare, but both getting rather late (or perhaps
preparing to spend the winter?). The blackberry tangle where I saw the
kingbird was hopping with sparrows (mostly GOLDEN-CROWNED and
SONG SPARROWS, but including at least 3 LINCOLN'S and 2
SAVANNAH SPARROWS), and it's possible that a thorough
check would turn up some scarcer species.

To anyone else looking for the Tropical Kingbird, I would suggest
a good deal of patience, perhaps combined with a search of nearby areas
(within 1 or 2 city blocks of the N end of Building #11) if you can't
find the bird right away. It appears to be feeding over a fair-sized area,
but keeps coming back at intervals to the vicinity of Building #11.

A point of interest-- there is another TROPICAL KINGBIRD near
the Sauvie I. bridge just NW of Portland, OR which was found on
Nov. 13, and was present at least through Nov. 21. If you
can't find the Magnuson Park bird, it may be worth a try for
this one. (Of course, this one won't count for your Washington list...)

Many thanks to Perri Lynch, who initially found the Magnuson Park
bird, to Dennis Paulson who first reported it to TWEETERS, and
to everyone else who has provided updates.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net