Hi Tweets,

My fiance and I took a brief time-out this afternoon as we drove to Oak Harbor from Camano, stopping over on the South (?) side of Deception Pass bridge (before crossing over toward Oak Harbor), pulling out into the bay that is at that side of the bridge. (Shoot, sorry, I don't know the name of the pull-out or the bay. If anyone wants it, feel free to email and I'll ask my fiance, who I'm sure will know. I *love* that area, but haven't been there enough yet to get oriented and to remember the names of the various parts.)

We watched a few waterfowl in the rain from the car, and then walked down to the beach to get a better look. There were:

-4 BUFFLEHEAD
-A pair of RED-NECKED GREBES
-A small flotilla (~5 mating pairs) of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS

We were treated to quite a fascinating observation time with the MERGANSERS! The males were on display, stretching out their necks and opening their beaks to emit their (barely audible from the shore) wheez, and then doing some sort of pumping action that I can't describe, before expanding the crests on their heads. Rinse, and repeat. This behavior continued for at least the 15-20 minutes that we watched. It was quite comical, and also delightfully interesting to observe. :) I'm somewhat of a birding Spring-mating-ritual virgin, so this was fun to see, more interesting and unique to watch, even, than the pair of obviously mating Flickers whose "dance" I was enthralled to watch in Missoula, MT, about 3 weeks ago. Also, somehow particularly more 'attractive' to me than the TURKEY that we saw later today in our Oak Harbor friends' chicken coop, turning his large waddle from crimson red, to white, and then back to red, and then stomping a poor hen until she managed to elude him, after which he ecstatically stomped a piece of black landscaping liner (don't know what that stuff is called) for several minutes. Interesting, but lordy those dudes are ugly!

Also with our Oak Harbor friends today, we enjoyed the first sighting of the season (theirs and ours) of an AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. Can't wait until they arrive at our feeders on Camano! There (Camano) we have a mesh bag for niger thistle that has been heavily visited by the PINE SISKINS in the past week or so. Also have been enjoying the return of our PURPLE FINCH friends there. In Oak Harbor today, we also witnessed incredibly active hummingbird visitation, some amazing ROUFOUS displays plus I swear that I saw something else before being able to grab my binoculars, but I don't get to see the buzzy little creatures often so am not yet good at IDing them. WOW, the ROUFOUS were spectacular, though!

As a side note, I appreciated the recent postings about the WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW song signaling the (final!) arrival of Spring. I think it was the *same* day that post came through that I had, myself, noticed them singing as I went about to different locations in my day. It was with great surprise and delight that I had noted them on the ground around my feeders in Kenmore, mixed with GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, at least 1-1/2 weeks before I started noticing that I was hearing them. For me, too, I find that the song of the WHITE-CROWNED now signals Spring for me. :)

Happy birding, and happy Spring!!

~Christy Jobe
Kenmore, WA (and Larry Baxter, Camano Island, WA)
christyrj at hotmail.com