Well, I chased the Buntings today. My first chase in several years. Arrived at the Snoqualmie park at 6:45 A.M. with my mother and sister who were up from California. Some chases are fun and fast and others are hard work . This was one we had to work for. At about 9:30 we started to leave, dejected that we had not seen the Buntings, but we still had a good morning. I had forgot how the birds play the hiding game, as we were leaving they had both decided that they should show themselves. We were about 200 yards up the trail from the dip at the creek on the way back to the car?when a Lazuli landed on the tall grass.?It then started to sing ?just to make sure we spotted it. Then another Lazuli started singing back towards the blackberries. So off we went with renewed enthusiasim. Then the Indigo flew overhead. I followed the flight and trekked off to it's landing spot. Good views for me but when the others arrived it flew again. I thought the game is on again. Another trek through the grass. More good views for me but my 83 year old mother dosen't move as fast as she used to. Again as she arrived where I was the Indigo ?flew back to the first tree. I then decided that the chase was over, I wasn't going to play the game any longer. When we reached the same spot that the Luzuli first appeared the Indigo landed and gave the three of us great views. I think it had felt sorry for us!!!!? While we were watching, all three of us would swear that a second Indigo sparred with the first and then landed in the lower grass out of our view. My sister got several pictures that we put on the computer when we got back home. We tried for quite awhile to enhance the pictures to confirm what we thought we saw, but the pictures are?just to fuzzy. Other birds in the area were: Evening Grosbeaks, Cedar Waxwings, Turkey Vulture, Common Yellowthroat, Downy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush and Rufous Hummingbird.



Toby Andrews

Bellevue