Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Olympic Peninsula 2-3 April 2007
Date: Apr 5 15:18:31 2007
From: allisivy at aol.com - allisivy at aol.com


Hi Tweeters-
We were at Cape Flattery yesterday (4/4/07) around noon, hoping to see the puffins, but
no luck. Then as we were getting ready to head back, were visited overhead
by over 75 sand hill cranes migrating north! Two flocks went over, within
about 30 minutes of each other. The first flock about 75 in number. The
coves at the Cape had many breeding plummage pigeon guillemots, oyster
catchers and pelagic cormorants.
We also saw a Mountain bluebird male with two females at Hobuck's beach.
This was a great birding trip. Many birds beginning to get their breeding
plummage, including a red-necked grebe on the ferry ride from Port Townsend
back to Whidbey. Were delighted to see a wood duck, and ring necked duck
also on the reservation. The Ozette beach had numerous harlequins in the
surf along with a hooded merganser with his mate.
The Makah reservation welcomes visitors, requiring only a $10 annual
recreation pass to camp and hike the trails there.
Thanks!
Allison Warner
Camano Island



15. Olympic Peninsula, 2-3 April 2007 (Charlie Wright)

----------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 23:52:03 -0700
From: "Charlie Wright" <c.wright7 at comcast.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] Olympic Peninsula, 2-3 April 2007
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <005501c77685$c0cff2d0$ae5ca843 at DROG>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Hello All

I spent two fine days birding on the Olympic Peninsula. Yesterday, I started
with some birding around Sequim. I readily found the PALM WARBLER at
Kitchen-Dick Ponds, chipping very loudly in spite of the gusty wind. Three
Crabs area did not produce anything out of the ordinary, so I headed to
Elwha River Mouth. Among the gulls loafing on the sandbar were 6
Black-legged Kittiwakes and 8 Thayer's Gulls.

I took a jaunt up the Elwha River Valley, where I observed a pair of Barred
Owls (interacting with a pair of ravens in the oldest section of trees I
could find), a Ruffed Grouse which slooowly crossed the road, and an
American Dipper. As I climbed, it began snowing heavily, so I turned around
and kept heading west. On the way out to Neah Bay, I was surprised to see an
American Kestrel near Clallam Bay. I doubt they are very regular that far
out on the peninsula.

I stayed the night at Hobuck Beach, a Makah-run camp just a few miles south
of Cape Flattery. I took an afternoon walk all along the beach. I was
astonished to find a flock of 10 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS foraging in the
driftwood on the north section of the beach. Also somewhat surprising was an
imm. Northern Shrike hunting the beach.

After a frigid night, I headed to Cape Flattery at daybreak. I scoped from
the last platform for about 3 hours. There was lots of activity, although
most alcids were distant and none were coming to the cliffs. I had 2 Ancient
Murrelets and 1 Cassin's Auklet right off the bat, but then nothing until I
was about ready to leave at 10:30. A basic-plumaged HORNED PUFFIN appeared
in my scope, in flight with a Rhino Auklet, at a great distance although not
too great to clearly see what it was. Very happy, I headed back to my car
(finding a Western Red-backed Salamander on the way...) and back to Neah
Bay. There was a large concentration of raptors over Neah Bay. I observed
for about 30 minutes and counted 48 Turkey Vultures, 22 Bald Eagles, 18
Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Peregrine Falcons, and 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk. Most of
these rose on the obviously strong thermals until they were nearly
invisible, then drifted over the straits. The rest stayed low and meandered
east along the coastline. This is a great place to watch migration.
After that, I headed south and birded a number of places along the coast. At
Kalaloch 2 Gray Whales and a Whimbrel were the only notable things.

I stopped by Brady Loop Road on the way home, and found a 1W Glaucous Gull
and a Caspian Tern.

Of interest, I saw Pine Siskins more often in the last two days than I have
anywhere in the last year or more.

Some photos can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/potoo

That's about all!

thanks,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington



------------------------------

Message: 16
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 00:07:05 -0700
From: "Matt Dufort" <zeledonia at gmail.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] SE Washington birding, 3/31-4/1
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>, <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>
Message-ID: <46134e4a.78e403e2.7d31.ffff9e00 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250"

Hello all,



I spent this past weekend birding a variety of locations in southeastern
Washington. Some brief highlights are below. I?d like to write a longer
description of the trip, but doing that would probably delay my post at
least another day or two. It was an amazing weekend, with some really cool
birds. The flock of geese on Corfu Rd was a definite highlight ? many
thousands of birds, with 5 species of geese in the flock!





Glaucous Gull

1 adult at various spots around Central Ferry / Port of Garfield along the
Snake River on 4/1 ? this bird followed me from Port of Garfield to Central
Ferry Park, and then to the backwater of the Snake along Lower Deadman Rd
east of Hwy 127. It kept flying in and landing in front of me.



Ross?s Goose

1 in the big goose flock on Corfu Rd west of Othello, 3/31

1 with a small group of Canada Geese at Swallows Park near Clarkston, 4/1



Eurasian Green-winged Teal

1 at County Line Ponds along Hwy 26 west of Othello, 3/31



Snow Goose

8 in the Corfu Rd goose flock on 3/31 ? this flock was at least
15,000-20,000 birds, and also held at least 6 Greater White-fronted Geese

15 by themselves way out on Potholes Reservoir on 3/31



Swainson?s Hawk

1 on Hwy 260 northeast of Kahlotus on 3/31



American Avocet

2 at County Line Ponds along Hwy 26 on 3/31

2 at Hatton Coulee Rest Area on 3/31



Long-billed Curlew

1 hanging out in Othello (!) in crop fields along 7th Ave, north of the
school, on 3/31



Long-eared Owl

1 at Windust Park on 3/31 (also one Barn Owl there)



Black-backed Woodpecker

Pair at the Sweeney Gulch Burn, Garfield Co., on 4/1



Williamson?s Sapsucker

1 male drumming and digging sap wells in the Sweeney Gulch Burn on 4/1



Tricolored Blackbird

At least 12 in a small marsh north of the Para Ponds, NW of Othello, on 3/31





Good birding!

Matt Dufort






--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.25/745 - Release Date: 4/3/2007
12:48 PM

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/private/tweeters/attachments/20070404/da870294/attachment-0001.htm

------------------------------

Message: 17
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:23:01 -0700
From: "Doug Schonewald" <dschone8 at donobi.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] re: Moses Lake Lesser Black-backed Gull (LBBG) -
looooong
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <LMEOKEGIHCKCABIHDIONIEJKEAAA.dschone8 at donobi.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Ryan,

Since I found the original bird I suppose I should respond to this bird and
the questions that it has raised.
First let's review what we know about the most likely candidates (that are
not LBBG or are a sub-species of LBBG that would be extremely unusual) that
have been put forth as possibilities for the Moses Lake bird.
'Baltic Gull'- actually a sub-species of LBBG with a Latin moniker of Larus
fuscus fuscus. Migration patterns make this a highly unlikely possibility.
In addition to migrating away from the west coast of the North American
Continent, this bird is in serious decline with less than 20,00, pairs
worldwide (and that population centered in eastern Europe). The biggest
problem with this possibility is that fuscus is a 3-year gull. The Moses
Lake bird is in it's 3rd year and is still not mature. This makes the Moses
Lake bird a 4-year gull and eliminates fuscus as a possibility (though how
in the heck a 3-cycle bird can be considered a sub-species of a 4-cycle bird
is a little beyond my feeble skills).
Heuglin's Gull is the next best possibility. Larus heuglini heuglini,
Heuglin's also migrates away from the western coast of North America and has
no precedent of vagrancy to the west coast of North America. In addition,
most authorities note that Heuglin's molts into summer plumage quite late in
the spring. The Moses Lake bird had almost completely molted into summer
plumage in mid-March when it was located. This is attested to in Ryan's
excellent photos. Another mark against Heuglin's nominate. Also, Olsen and
Larsson note that the nominate race is a 3-year gull (though they contradict
themselves several times on this). L.h. taimyrensis (sometimes considered a
ssp. of Heuglin's) has a migration pattern that might bring it to the west
coast of North America, but there is no precedent for such vagrancy in this
bird either. Taimyrensis is also the palest of the birds discussed thus far,
and should be eliminated on basis of mantle color alone. Taimyrensis is now
considered a clinal hybrid of L.h. heuglini and Vega.
Vega Gull is a possibility, but the Moses Lake bird is way too dark to be a
Vega Gull. In fact I could not find a photo of a pure Vega Gull that was
anywhere near as dark as the Moses Lake bird.
Yellow-legged Gull was considered for a bit (very wishful thinking) but was
almost immediately scrapped based on cycle count (YLGU is a 3-year gull) and
absolute lack of vagrancy pattern to the west or for that matter inland
waters.
That leaves us with some kind of hybrid, or the bird is indeed a LBBG. As
Ryan noted the bird looks good in every respect for LBBG. My feeling at the
time of observation was that "If it looks like a LBBG then it probably is a
LBBG". I did try to make it something else but could not. There is no
indication of a hybrid and that brings us to the eye and location of the
observation. Since we are certain that this is a 3-year bird (and this bird
has a 4-year cycle) I checked Olsen/Larsson and noted that in 3rd year birds
the iris is listed as "often darker, in small minority all dark". This fits
well. Further, vagrancy patterns show that the arrival of the Moses Lake
bird follows vagrancy patterns as LBBG moves across the lower 48 from east
to west.
Synopsis: The Moses Lake gull is a bird with a 4-year cycle that fits all
aspects of color, vagrancy pattern, and molt. LBBG also shows a marked
propensity to return to imprinted locations year after year (a good example
is the LBBG of the upper Grand Coulee lakes and the bird that showed for
several consecutive years on the Walla Walla Delta area). Granted this is
not a 100% certain ID, but for me, 99% certain is pretty good and I'll buy
that any day with gulls.
I do have photos of last years bird. They are not great quality, but good
enough for review and comparison, but I do not have a site to post them (I
keep thinking I'll get this done, but haven't yet). I can send them to those
who are interested.

Cheers

Doug Schonewald
Moses Lake, WA
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.22/739 - Release Date: 3/29/2007
1:36 PM



------------------------------

Message: 18
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 08:55:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kathy Andrich <chukarbird at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Parking Lot White-crowned Sparrow
To: tweet <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <20070404155542.86855.qmail at web52906.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1


Hi Tweeters,

It must really be spring, I heard my first parking lot
White-crowned this morning at about 5:30am belting out
his song in Kent at the Dunkin Donut/Baskin Robbin lot
on Meeker. Didn't even have to roll down my window to
enjoy that one while I was waiting at the light.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County



____________________________________________________________________________________
Get your own web address.
Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL


------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at mailman1.u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

End of Tweeters Digest, Vol 32, Issue 4
***************************************
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.