A group went birding around North Richland today in an area bounded by
George Washington Way, Newcomer and Sprout Streets, and the Columbia River.
This is an older neighborhood with many great trees for winter birds (many
evergreens - spruce & cedar - dogwood, mountain ash, birch, etc). During
the Christmas Bird Count we may find 1 or maybe 2 Townsend's Solitaires in
this area and/or 1 or 2 elsewhere in the circle. (The high CBC count since
1975 is 4.) Today we had a total of 8 in the area described above. It was
strange to have 1 in full song and several of the others giving their
characteristic call note. Any other areas seeing increased numbers of
Townsend's Solitaire?

Also found were a female Purple Finch and Harris's Sparrow - great birds for
Benton county.

Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland WA