Got to the farm just before 11.30am, with nothing much around except
house sparrows and starlings. A small flock of blackbirds showed up
beneath the grain silo after a while - one male red-winged, about 8 male
Brewer's and two females. They disappeared after just a couple of
minutes, and returned for another fleeting visit maybe 30 mins later. No
rusty ID'd by me or the other hopeful blackbird-hunter (he did introduce
himself, but I'm awful with names, and I've forgotten already, sorry!).

The people around the farm were very helpful when asked - they had no
objection to the two of us parking at the front of the farm as long as
we didn't get in the way of the feed trucks. My new friend asked the
farmer if he could buy a bit of his feed to scatter on the ground by the
silo. It didn't help much, producing surprisingly little activity even
from the house sparrows and starlings.

At 1pm, I went off to Carnation marsh for a while - found a downy
woodpecker for my year list, but nothing of special interest. Back at
the farm for 3pm - got a thumbs down from the other carload of watchers
there, who left shortly after. There were more blackbirds around by
then, though, several more male red-winged and some females with the
group. They were sticking closer to the farm too, moving regularly
between feed pile and barn roofs and the trees across the road and off
Carnation Farm Road instead of disappearing out of sight.

At 3.15, a male American kestrel flew into one of the trees across the
road, and was entirely ignored by all the starlings sharing it. Finally,
at 3.35, scanning the trees across the road, one brown blackbird with a
pale eye as it cocked its head from side to side. At first I thought it
might be the light catching the eye, but a scan revealed all the other
brown blackbirds in the same tree had dark eyes no matter which way they
looked at me. The brown breast was uniform with no streaks, so the
female.

I got a better look at the rest of it 10 minutes later, when it finally
hit the ground in front of the silo along with the others - a fairly
uniform brown, pale eye, grey wings and tail. Googling the images
online, the bird I saw was very like this in plumage, though I'd say the
supercilium wasn't quite so marked (possibly a lighting issue).

http://www.taiga.net/yourYukon/col447.jpg

If there were males in the flock, I missed them.

If anyone's planning a visit, the lighting's much better in the morning
or early afternoon. By 3pm, the area by the grain silo's in shadow and
you're peering into it from sunlight. The earlier sun made checking the
purple sheen to the heads of the male Brewer's an easy fly-by. Of
course, that's no help if the rusties don't show on cue....

Louise

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