Tweeters,



Thanks to all who gave suggestions on where to find this bird. The most
often mentioned (and closest spot) was Capitol Forest, which I visited this
morning. At about 10 AM I got out of the car at a wide spot (where B-1000
turns off of C-4000) in the road and heard a HERMIT WARBLER singing. I made
my best bird attracting noise and he came down to check me out, perching on
a clump of pine needles close enough for a photo, and continued to sing. It
surprised me to get this life bird so quickly as I usually find forests
tough to bird.



I went on searching for Mountain Quail, but these did not appear. In the
brushy stuff near a clear cut I heard at least two MACGILLAVRAY'S WARBLERS,
and got good looks at one of them. Not a life bird but still exciting to
watch. The white crescents above and below the eye are a nice touch. I
also heard Yellow Warbler and Varied Thrush



I decided to keep going and exit from the B-line as shown on the map I had
bought at the Forest Office. Big mistake. It took a while to find the
B-line and after heading down it a ways I found the road completely slid
away and impassible. I could turn around, but it was a long way back and
time prevented further birding. I did make a brief stop at Nisqually NWR
and noted that the pond where I saw two kinds of phalaropes last year does
not seem to be there anymore.



Marvin S. Hoekstra

Sammamish, WA

marvin dot hoekstra at verizon dot net