Today, Penny Koyama and I went out to the Stillwater Unit of the
Snoqualmie Valley RA, mostly in search of the YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. We
headed left from the main parking lot, and about 10 am, we heard the
chat call and sing briefly from the right hand side of the trail about
50 yards beyond the bridge over Harris Creek. In about the same spot,
but on the left side of the trail, we heard a warbler song we didn't
recognize immediately. We caught tantalizing glimpses of various
redstart-like bits of the bird as it sang from the thick foliage, until
it finally flew into a tree next to the trail, and we were able to note
all the field marks of a young male AMERICAN REDSTART. This bird is
just beginning to molt into adult plumage, with scattered black feathers
around the face and throat. The bird was still singing in the same
location when we left an hour later.

In addition to the expected species, other birds of note were a flyover
AMERICAN BITTERN, 2-3 MOURNING DOVES, my first RED-EYED VIREO of the
season, and a MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER singing from a high, exposed perch.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelWL at msn.com