Hi everyone,



I just got back from a ten day trip which included a four-day float trip on the Deschutes River in central Oregon (the second one this year, a nice bonus) and a three-day music festival at which my band played.? I'll do a more complete report later, but wanted to do a quick mention of a small world story at the music festival.



The festival was the Tygh Valley Bluegrass Festival, held at the Wasco County (Oregon) Fairgrounds in - you guessed it - the thriving tiny burg of Tygh Valley.? A major part of the bluegrass festival music culture is the jamming that happens, particularly after the evening concerts are over, and continues sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.? Musicians circulate around the camping area and join in jams where they may know some people - but also may never have met the other musicians.? A guitarist and Dobro player wandered into a jam session I was in on Saturday night and sat down to play.? He had on a red T-shirt that read "CHAPMAN SWIFTS" with a drawing of a Vaux's Swift in the center.? Chapman School in Portland, Oregon for those who don't know, is the counterpart of Monroe Elementary in our neck of the woods - its chimney draws huge numbers of roosting swifts (and the occasional hawk or falcon looking for an easy dinner).? So I assumed he was a birder and announced to the jam that we had just been joined by another crazy birder.? (I already have the reputation of being the crazy bluegrass birder, of course.)? Turns out he was not a birder, but rather a teacher at the school...thus the interest in the birds and the T-shirt.? We educated the rest of the musicians about the spectacle of the swifts.



As it turned out, the area in and around the Wasco County Fairgrounds was a great place to bird as well.? The trees and bushes were literally crawling with Yellow-rumped Warblers (try as I might, I couldn't find any other warbler species).? Western Scrub-Jays were everywhere as well, and I was treated to at least five Lewis's Woodpeckers flycatching.? Other interesting birds included Western Bluebirds, a flock of eight Wild Turkeys, a large covey of California Quail that nearly caused cardiac arrest when I inadvertently flushed them on an early-morning walk, multiple Red-tailed Hawks, migrating Turkey Vultures, Brewer's Blackbirds?and abundant?White-crowned Sparrows.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net

www.tubbsphoto.com

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