Hi Tweeters,

Things are picking up a little in my neck of the woods. This morning I heard a Western Tanager as I was leaving for work. They have not been around my house since spring migration. I took a short walk before work near the Kent Ponds area, the powerline trail off of 64th ave S, on the west side the trial extends a bit west. This is a good spot for W. Scrub Jay, I probably saw young of the year here, a very gray headed bird. I saw a Western Tanager here, the first place I saw one in spring migration this year. Also a large flock of Bushtits. This weekend when I was working in the yard there was a large flock of Bushtits in my neighborhood too. I put out some suet for them but they did not visit.

Last night I stopped back where the old Thomas ponds were on Frontage Rd NW off of 277th St, near Hwy 167. The open area between Toysmith and Corporate Express warehouse is probably being developed, many Caterpillar heavy equipment and a lot of water. This may not be as good as Thomas ponds was for shorebirds but there was about a dozen Killdeer, 3-4 Least Sandpipers, a hunting Great Blue Heron, and a gorgeous hatch year Northern Harrier, beautiful cinnamon red breast. Makes one suspect that the male Northern Harrier near Emerald Downs helped raised some young nearby.

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)