Hi Tweets,

Having sated myself at the Edmonds Arts Festival yesterday, I needed
a hit of birding today. Ruth Sullivan agreed to meet me on I-90 and
we would head for Snoqualmie and the Indigo Bunting. Ruth got
wonderful driving directions from John Tubbs so we arrived at the
Three Forks Natural Area without a hitch or a glitch. What I didn't
count on was rain. Thirty rainless days made this Mossback forget
about that watery stuff that hurls itself out of our skies. No
rubber boots. Check. No umbrella. Check. No spare shoes. Check.
So I shrugged on my lightest weight rain jacket that happened to be
in the car and off we went to tromp through the fields. (Ruth was
much better prepared for rain than I was.) We talked to two birders
just returning from having seen the Indigo Bunting so we hurried off
to the far field, thinking we had a pretty good idea of where to
look. Well, once we got there we weren't quite so sure. We saw lots
of great birds and eventually saw a streak of blue low over the tall
grass. When we were eventually able to get on it, we saw the white
wing bars and underside. We had a Lazuli Bunting and Ruth got some
good photos. The rain was getting worse so we headed back to the
cars to dry off a bit and rethink our strategy. Fortunately, Ruth
found a printed copy of Ken Grant's original post so we knew we had
already been in the right section of the field and would return
there. The rain continued instead of letting up so Ruth produced two
umbrellas, put on her rubber boots and off we went for a second
look. I was still in my Goretex but low-cut hiking shoes. By now
the tall grass was saturated and bent over the trail. With each step
my pants soaked up more water. Gravity pulled the water down to my
cuffs. From there it was a quick run down my socks and into my
shoes. Squish, squish, squish. The water level rose inside my
shoes. I continued walking. Hey, I was finally walking on water!
It worked. No trick to it. Just grin and bear it. By the time we
got back to the Indigo Bunting site, the rain diminished and the sun
finally appeared. I forgot that I was carrying several pounds of
water in my pants and shoes. At 1:15 p.m., three and a quarter hours
after we commenced this little outing, we heard a different song.
Then a flash of all blue zipped across the trail, over the sea of
blackberries and headed for a clump of cottonwoods. We could still
hear it singing and followed it through the field. It seemed to be
close but stayed inside the blackberry brambles where we could not
see it. It finally stopped singing so we walked back to the trail.
Then the bird started singing again and flew up to the top of tree
very near us. I grabbed Ruth's camera and shot off a number of
photos with her rapid shooting feature just before the bird flew
off. All told, we had a good hour to see but mostly listen to the
bunting.

Three Forks Birds Today

Indigo Bunting
Lazuli Bunting
Least Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Empid (sp.)
Rufous Hummingbird
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Downy Woodpecker (2)
Red-breasted Sapsucker (1)
Brown Creeper (2)
Swainson's Thrush
Cedar Waxwing
Robin
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Common Yellowthroat
Black-headed Grosbeak
Band-tailed Pigeon (10)
Great Blue Heron (1)
Bald Eagle (1)
Osprey (1)
Turkey Vulture (1)

Thanks to Ken for finding this bird and to everyone else who has
continued posting on it.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds