Birders,

On December 18th, I found a life bird-- a well-marked ARCTIC LOON near
Astoria, OR which was found on December 9 by Mike Patterson of Astoria, and
has been seen every day since then, including today (December 21) and
photographed by several observers. With luck, it will stay there a bit
longer for the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet.

The bird has been seen in Blind Slough, an off-channel of the Columbia River
located near Brownsmead and north of Knappa, OR (about 15 miles E of
Astoria). It is most often seen from or within 0.5 miles east or west of the
Barendse Road bridge across the slough. This spot can easily be located with
the help of the Delorme Atlas of Oregon, or by doing a search for this spot
on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) and printing out the resulting map.

Updates on the loon can be found by looking at the recent archives of the
OBOL E-mail group at http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/OBOL.html .

Good luck to anyone who decides to look for this bird!

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