Tweeters:

A frosty, beautiful morning up here at Tiny's Land in n. Lake Stevens produced a pretty nice group of birds. An overnight low of 25 F. brought many visitors to the feeder, but the big surprise was two male CASSIN'S FINCHES, first heard giving the "tee-dee-yip" call, then seen, and a possible third was with them, although it was not seen well and I could not rule out a Purple. This was a first here, and westwide records for Cassin's Finch (other than near the Cascade crest in summer-fall) are rare. Skagit County has at least two downslope reports (both in the Mount Vernon area, also in Nov.) and I had a point-blank range female along the Graysmarsh beach near Sequim many Novembers back; the Sequim-Dungeness CBC has had a couple records in foothill sections dating back to the earliest years of the CBC, none recently. The entire morning list:

N. Flicker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Steller's Jay 2
crow 5
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 10
Brown Creeper 2
RB Nuthatch 1
Winter Wren 4
Bewick's Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 23
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Am. Robin 1
Cedar Waxwing 1 (our latest ever here, flyover)
Hutton's Vireo 1
Townsend's Warbler 1
Song Sparrow 2
Spotted Towhee 1
DE (Ore) Junco 8
Purple Finch 2
CASSIN'S FINCH 2
Carpodacus, sp. 1
Pine Siskin 50
Evening Grosbeak 14

Total, 23 species

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

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