This morning, while showing an out of town birder around the North Mason area, we stopped to try for Hermit and Townsend's warblers. An odd call stymied us both as we got just glimpses of jay shaped birds in the tree tops then heading north. Some of the calls were definitely kids calling mom/dad calls. A few minutes later we stopped again in a spot further north and again heard the same sounds. A flash of gray flew over but not enough seen to be sure of an ID. A couple minutes later an adult gray jay perched atop a tree long enough for us to positively see that it was a gray jay. This is the first I've seen or heard of nesting gray jays east of Hood Canal in this area of North Mason. I've seen lone birds in winter but never a family group.

Our target species of Mt. Quail were unobligingly absent from my yard but we did find a family group up on the Tahuya-Blacksmith Rd. Other good birds were MacGillevry's, black-throated gray and orange-crowned warblers.

Hope your morning was a good as mine was.

Mary Hrudkaj
Belfair/Tahuya
hrudkajm at hotmail.com
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