Hi All,

Yesterday's huge push of migrants at Point no Point was followed this
morning by a lackluster trickle of birds. But that said, this morning
presented some quality west-side birds rather than large numbers of
birds. I wonder how much the strong high pressure and off-shore winds
might have influenced some of these sightings. Here are the highlights:

LARK SPARROW - one hanging around the southern part of the gravel
parking area at Norwegian Point Park in Hansville. This is a new park
just south of the Hansville Store. Lark Sparrow is a code 5 bird for
Kitsap County. I had one near the lighthouse at Point no Point back on
May 10th of 2003.

HOUSE WREN - I think this bird is going to hang around for a while as it
was acting as though it was establishing a territory. It was singing
away near some nest boxes near a residence along the road to the
lighthouse. Street # 8532 and a sign saying Mackey will put you on the
spot. I am not sure how many yard-birds Vic Nelsen( I am purposely
spelling his name wrong) has seen by standing on his roof, but the House
Wren would make another one. This is the first one he has had at Point
no Point.

SWAINSON'S HAWKS - 3!!!!! (one light phase full adult and 2 sub-adults)
A little after 10:00 Doug and Pipper Watkins and I were strolling back
to the trailer park from a check of the lighthouse area when a few
soaring Turkey Vultures caught our attention. In with them was a
sub-adult that we scoped and enjoyed for a minute or two before it
headed north over the water. A few minutes later a beautiful adult
joined-in with the 5 Turkey Vultures and lazily circled and stalled in
the area over us allowing over 5 minutes of viewing. I was able to even
video tape it and Vic was able to add his second life yard-bird of the
morning. As the adult finally started to head north over the water a
second sub-adult joined it as they departed north.

We had only a handful of Western Tanagers this morning and we didn't see
a Western Kingbird. One male and one female Yellow-headed Blackbird were
in the area and the Eurasian Collared-Dove was still hanging around.
There were possibly up to 10 Bullock's Orioles in the skies above but
only one dropped down to allow good viewing. I also had a Solitary
Sandpiper in the Kingston Area before arriving at the point.


Cheers and good birding,
Brad Waggoner (alias Brad Wagner)
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com