Tweeters,

Two Kitsap County interlopers from Bainbridge Island swooped into King
County today to search for the exotic avifauna recently reported. They were
not disappointed!!

Jamie Acker and I (George Gerdts) took the very early (4:40 AM) ferry from
Bainbridge Island to the mainland. We arrived at 3-Forks Park in
Snoqualmie, after a couple of missed turns, just after 6:00 AM. As we got to the
NW corner of the field, the Indigo Bunting was singing his heart out. It
took Jamie only seconds to locate the bunting, and then for 45 minutes we
enjoyed wonderful looks as the Indigo sang from a variety of perches including
the blackberry brambles and even the tall grass behind us. He seemed to
be in competition with the nearby Lazuli Bunting for a territory. At one
point, a female Lazuli Bunting landed on a branch just below where he was
singing. He tried to mount her, but she would have nothing to do with his
crude advances. The mosquitoes got a bit annoying after 45 minutes, so we
reluctantly departed. No sign of the Least Flycatcher. We did have a fine
serenade from a Red-eyed Vireo, and lots of other great birds that others
have already mentioned.

Flush with success, we drove onward to Stillwater where the nesting
Redstarts had been reported. We pulled into the parking lot just north of Fay
St., displayed our Wildlife Permit and headed in the direction we thought the
nesting Redstarts were located. Three mobile telephone calls to Gene Hunn
finally put us in the right locale, and we quickly located the male
Redstart who was singing almost continuously. The male Redstart continued singing
more or less continuously for the first 15 minutes we were near the nest
site, then he left for a few minutes, but returned and sang a bit more, left
again, returned, and then foraged silently. We left after about 45
minutes because the mosquitoes (again) were a bit too much!! We surmised that
the female was incubating on the nest even though we couldn't detect her.
The fact that the male kept returning to the vicinity and a couple of times
actually went within a foot or two of the nest, suggested to us that nesting
was "still on"!!

Needless to say it was a fun day of birding in King Co. The Snoqualmie
Valley is a treasure!! The wonderful and extensive riparian habitat is
fabulous!! Habitat like that in Kitsap Co. is scarce. It was amazingly lush
and full of birds and bird song. Kudos to the powers that be who had the
foresight to preserve so much of the valley for wildlife!! We'll be back!!

George Gerdts
Bainbridge Island
_geopandion at aol.com_ (mailto:geopandion at aol.com)
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