Seven birders joined me this morning to carpool from the Newcastle P&R lot off of I405 in south Bellevue for the monthly ?Hot Spots? field trip offered by Eastside Audubon (it?s the last Monday of each month, 9 to noon). I filled in for Hugh Jennings, who asked me to lead the group to the Three Forks Natural Area with the hope of seeing the Gray Catbird, Least Flycatcher, and Indigo Bunting. Alas, we didn?t hear or see the first two, but happily we heard the INDIGO BUNTING singing from his spot in the back of the second meadow, and fortunately we had nice looks at him as well. I digress....back to the parking area..... just as we stepped out of the cars, we heard a loud burst of high-pitched sound erupt midway up in the Cottonwoods on the south side of the lot, and looked up to see a male BULLOCK?S ORIOLE fly into a downward hanging branch. As we watched, it flew in and out several times to feed its young in a nest made up of colorful blue fibers. Next, a young RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER flew into one of the nearby trees near the cars and began working its way up a branch (we later saw 3 more). We headed into the first meadow in search of the Catbird, where several WILLOW FLYCATCHERS were perched up and singing, along with a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK a little higher up in the trees. Just before we left this meadow, we saw 14 BAND-TAILED PIGEONS perched in a snag, and 6 more flew by behind us. As we entered the second meadow (also filled with Willow Flycatchers), we heard the LAZULI BUNTING and soon found it perched about 25 feet up (later on we saw a second Laz fly from the other side of the field). Further down the trail, we heard and then saw a RED-EYED VIREO perched out nice to see on a twig deep in the Cottonwoods (later, we saw a second one feeding low in a small tree as we headed back to our cars). Following the song of the INDIGO BUNTING, Rusty led us to an area in the meadow where the wet grass was trampled flat, and there we found the now-famous bird. We got some very nice looks! The last neat bird behavior happend as we were in our cars ready to leave when a small, yellowish bird was spotted flying with intention into the Willows on the edge of the north pond. It was a female YELLOW WARBLER settling down into her nest. Other birds we enjoyed seeing/hearing were: WOOD DUCK, HOODED MERGANSER, PIED-BILLED GREBE, TURKEY VULTURE, BALD EAGLE, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, ROCK PIGEON, VAUX?S SWIFT, RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, DOWNY WOODPECKER, NORTHERN FLICKER, WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, AMERICAN CROWN, COMMON RAVEN, TREE SWALLOW, VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW, NO. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, BARN SWALLOW, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, SWAINSON?S THRUSH, AMERICAN ROBIN, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, SAVANNAH SPARROW, SONG SPAROW, & AMERICAN GOLDFINCH.

34 species in a couple of hours......Good birding with nice folks!

Sharon Cormier-Aagaard
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