Hi All,

This morning I (and a number of other folks who had read the posts) went to Stillwater looking for the Yellow Breasted Chat (YBCH). The YBCH made a brief appearance early in the morning for two other photographers but then made itself scarce, at least until around 12:30 when I left. However, the trail was extremely birdy all morning - I noted 26 species in the short stretch of trail south of the parking lot to the third bridge.

There were at least two pairs of CEDAR WAXWINGs (CEWA) gathering nesting materials. As I was walking back to the car, I lucked into a pair of CEWA very close to me, at eye level, engaged in a courtship ritual. One of the birds - I assume the male - had picked a berry from a tree and presented it to the female. The birds would hold the berry for a couple of seconds, then quickly but smoothly (with some accompanying gesturing) pass the berry back to the other bird. This transfer must have happened at least a dozen times while I was watching and clicking the shutter until they flew to another location. A link to one of the images of this scene is http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=3924449&cat=38990.

At the second bridge south of the main WDFW parking lot, on the west side of the trail, a pair of RED
BREASTED SAPSUCKERs have a nest cavity in a snag and were busily ferrying food to it. Unfortunately the entrance hole is angled away from the trail and so didn't allow for photography, but it was entertaining to watch the birds fly to/from the nest cavity no more than two feet over the heads of anyone standing on the bridge.

There were several WESTERN WOOD PEWEEs and the first of the year for me WILLOW FLYCATCHERs singing at various spots along the trail, plus some warblers, woodpeckers, sparrows and assorted other species.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com