Tweets, The changing of the guard is in full swing. Around Tenino this
morning HERMIT THRUSHes and LINCOLN'S SPARROWs were widespread and FOX
SPARROWs have arrived. Most interesting:
- One good mixed flock on Vantine Rd including HERMIT (1), TOWNSEND'S (2),
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS (several), PAC-SL FLYCTR (2), kinglets and lots
of chickadees and nuthatches, with a large number of robins and waxwings
making a ruckus and 4 species of woodpeckers providing percussion. (It was
LOUD!)Saw one immature warbler that made me wonder about BLACKBURNIAN but
was probably a more-than-usual yellowish-yellow-orange tinted BTG.
- HERMIT THRUSHes at four different locations, each time in company with
SWAINSON'S (the more numerous except at one spot). I've never seen them
together like this before. In one location they were eating blackberries
under the cover of 20-ft alders and cottonwoods--several birds making quite
a lot of noise.
- A Hermit Thrush giving a very soft single call note (never heard before)
much like the descending "whine" that robins sometimes make (often while
seemingly in a stupor)--same catatonic behavior but the note (repeated 3x)
softer, higher, and shorter.
- It was good to see siskins, crossbills, and Evening Grosbeaks, and to hear
the N PYGMY-OWL again on Vantine Rd.
58 (mostly woodland) birds on the morning, for the most part quite active
and vocal. Good birding!
Paul Hicks, Tenino, s. Thurston Co
phicks AT accessgrace.org