This morning I had a _very_ good day on the prairie at the the Mima
Mounds Natural Area, Thurston County, despite a generally low level of
bird activity.

First, I found 3 Vesper Sparrow in the southern part of the area. I
tend to find Vespers here about this time of year, so I wasn't
surprised, but I was pleased that they'd finally arrived.

And then...walking north, I saw a bird perched atop a small tree ahead,
put the binocs on it, saw a vividly all blue bird, dropped the binocs,
whipped up my spotting scope, and confirmed it was a Mountain Bluebird,
not an hallucination.

Complete list follows...

------- Forwarded message follows -------
This report was mailed for Doug Canning by http://birdnotes.net

Date: April 16, 2010
Location: Mima Mounds Natural Area, Thurston County, Washington

Walked the 2.6-mile southerly loop trail, 0950 to 1254 pst. Any cloud
cover was more a thin haze.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) 2 [1]
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) 1
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 2
Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) 1 [2]
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 5
Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) 3 [3]
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) 15
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) 5
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) 8

Footnotes:

[1] 1 male, 1 female.
[2] Male. Direct lighting on 3/4 frontal view.
[3] 2 confirmed primarily by white outer tail feathers when flushed; 1
confirmed by pinkish back-lit lower mandible when in profile, and
a mere glimpse of white outer tail feathers when flushed.

Total number of species seen: 10
------- End of forwarded message -------

*************************
Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at scattercreek.com
dcanning at igc.org
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