Hey Tweets,

What a couple of days in the back yard! Yesterday morning, I heard a thrush calling from the yard next door, but didn't get a good look at it. It was doubling its call a lot, and my Birds of North America said that's something a HERMIT THRUSH will do. Thought it would be nice to actually see it, which did happen this morning when I caught a good look at it under our willow. New yard bird!

The maturing of the dandelions in my yard would, I was sure, bring some sparrows (they love those seeds), and, sure enough, I saw a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW hopping around with the usual suspects. Along with it, there was a bird that I thought might be a white crowned, then maybe a house sparrow, but it just didn't look right. Finally dug through the field guide, and the only one I could find with a black crown and chin with that pattern was a HARRIS' SPARROW. Still figured it might be a house sparrow in some bizarre juvenile plumage, but I waited it out, and he came back - orange pink bill, black crown and chin, black ear patch, white breast with some black spotting on the flanks.

This is, of course, a new yard bird, and a life bird for me as well. Are backyard feeders where they are found in other locales? (It wasn't at the feeder itself, but scavenging down below, mostly following the golden-crowns around). Have no idea what a 'normal' place is to find them.

Other birds this week - Yellow rumps, song sparrows, downy woodpecker, red-breasted sapsucker (every morning a little before 7, hammering at this stop sign...), both chickadees, towhee, junco, siskins, goldfinches, bewick's wren, ruby crowned kinglets, bushtits, starlings, crows, house finch, hummingbird (sp?), and some Canada Geese flying overhead.

I am in the Cascade Vista area of Renton, about a half mile west of Renton Park on 125th Ave SE.

-Tim Brennan
Renton
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