Despite the lull in activity last few days at Washtucna, all of the birds must have moved in this morning. In addition to the two great vagrants mentioned above, the park was hopping with tons of empids, warblers and vireos. A quick summary list of birds first and then details of the two vagrants.

Empids:
Dusky Flycatcher-10+
Hammond's Flycatcher-5-8
Gray Flycatcher-2
Least Flycatcher-1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher-3
Western-Wood Pewee-20+
Olive-sided flycatcher-2

Vireos:
Warbling vireo-15+
Cassin's Vireo-6
Red-eyed Vireo-2
BLUE-HEADED VIREO-1 (adult)

Warblers:
Townsend's Warbler-5
Wilson's Warbler-30+
MacGillivray's' Warbler-4
Yellow-rumped Warbler-25+
HOODED WARBLER-1 (1st year)
Orange-crowned Warbler-7-10
Yellow Warbler-3

Sparrows:
White-crowned Sparrow-30+
Golden-crowned Sparrow-3
Dark-eyed Junco-6
Lincoln's Sparrow-4
Chipping Sparrow-10+
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW-1 (imm.)

Others:
Red-breasted Nuthatch-2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet-10+
Townsend's Solitaire-2
Hermit Thrush-2


Now for the details on the two vagrants:

Working the upper slope areas on the hill I came across a good mix of vireos just above the green house that borders the park. Several Cassin's Vireos, the Red-eyed and Warbling Vireo were all grouped in here. Suddenly a VERY bright BLUE-HEADED VIREO popped out. This was actually a state bird for me. I always examine odd Cassin's Vireos in the fall, hoping for such but this bird was as one would say "a no brainer". The head was a vivid dark metallic-blue and then the throat was a very crisp white, almost snow white. This coupled with the very bright back was stunning in the early morning light. I watched this bird for a few minutes and then it flew down slope. I went to see if I had any coverage on the cell (which I didn't) and did not relocate the bird upon my return, though there were so many birds moving around it may take some time to mull through them.

Next I moved down to the park itself. In a small tree near the small birch tree in the park (east of the creek) I located a small group of Wilson's Warbler. I began looking through them when a bird flitted out and much to my dismay the bird had white in the undertail. This immediately peaked my attention and quickly got looks at the rest of the bird. Overall the bird was fairly bright yellow below, quite long tailed (longer than the willies) and the bird kept flicking its tail and moving very quickly through the lower portions of this tree. It then flew over near the creek and able to see the top of the head and back well. When it flew I could also see the nice amount of white in the upper tail as it fanned its tail upon lighting. Face was yellow with a nice olive "cap" framing the face. Bird appeared to be quite fresh in plumage, indicating a first year bird female instead of an adult female. I don't have much experience with Hooded Warbler, but the call note was also quite loud, considerable more pronounced than the Wilson's.

I'll submit more complete details of both to the WBRC. It was about 9:30 this morning when I left the park.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA